ANTIPOLO – Rain or Shine ended Magnolia’s PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup campaign on Saturday but it meant more than just advancing to the semifinals.
It was the Elasto Painters exacting some sort of revenge, said Coach Yeng Guiao, as they felt that the Hotshots intentionally chose to face them in the quarters based on how they treated their final game of the group stage.
“We felt a little… maybe challenged, kasi alam namin na parang ginusto ng Magnolia na kami yung makatapat nila,” the outspoken mentor said during the postgame presser of their 113-103 Game 5 win at the Ynares Center here.
Approaching the eliminations’ final gameday last September 23, Rain or Shine had already clinched the no. 1 seed in Group A after it beat San Miguel, meaning that it would face Group B’s 4-seed in the playoffs’ first round.
Magnolia and Converge fought on the aforementioned date, with the winner clinching the third seed in Group B and the loser settling for fourth. The winning side was bound to face the Beermen, the second-ranked team in Group A.
The Hotshots lost, 89-82, therefore finishing as the no. 4 seed of their group. But it was really Coach Chito Victolero’s statements that irked RoS.
Shortly after that game, the champion mentor admitted to reporters that they intended to rest some of their key cogs in preparation for the quarterfinals, which began two days after the preliminaries concluded.
“We cannot afford to parang… to have major minutes for today’s game kasi it’s hard for us to recover in a one-day prep,” he said. “So whatever happens today, whoever we will face, the most important is our personnel.”
While that move by the Magnolia brain thrust sounded strategic for the upcoming grind then, that wasn’t how Guiao and his men took as much.
“‘Yung game nila with Converge, I felt sa kanila ‘yung makapagpahinga raw yung mga players kaysa sa mag-compete sila sa laro na yun. To me, it was a conscious choice on their part to play us,” said the 65-year-old.
Thus, the extra motivation on their part entering the series, and the immense satisfaction afterward following the ouster of the perennial contenders.
“And, Gabe Norwood kept telling us that we should exact some form of revenge for that, na these guys chose us. Maybe mas maganda na magsisi sila na tayo yung pinili nila. That was put as a challenge to the guys,” said Guiao.
