ANTIPOLO – Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao was hardly concerned with Ryan Pearson’s underwhelming debut versus Bay Area Friday.
The replacement import scored just nine points in 28 minutes in the humiliating 120-87 defeat but the veteran mentor said that it was all because of the limited time he’s spent with the Elasto Painters since arriving days ago.
“Coming off the plane, he’s not in game shape. Definitely, he’s not in game shape,” he said moments after the match at the Ynares Center here.
Guiao, though, offered that the team saw ‘flashes of brilliance’ from the 32-year-old forward, particularly in the first quarter that saw him score four points to help Rain or Shine open the game with an 8-1 lead over the guest team.
Too bad sustenance proved to be an issue, and the Dragons took advantage with Myles Powell leading the way en route to 50 big points.
“May mga flashes of brilliance naman na nakikita kami,” said Guiao of Pearson, who also finished with two rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
“Wala siyang legs kanina. Pinaka-magandang quarter niya ‘yung first quarter. After that, medyo ubos na talaga,” added the 63-year-old.
The loss was easily the Elasto Painters’ worst this conference but Guiao does not want that to in any way crush the team’s morale, especially heading into Sunday’s game against Converge, the hottest team in the league.
“Ayaw namin masyadong ma-down morale namin with this loss, so our attitude is just to move forward and prepare tomorrow for the Sunday game. And siguro yung frustrations namin dito sa laro na ‘to, dun na lang namin labas sa Sunday.
“The challenge for the coaching staff and myself is for this game not to drag us down and to be able to turn it into something positive by Sunday,” he said.
And of course, they’re hoping as well to see improvements from Pearson as they aim to not only end the FiberXers’ six-game winning streak but to keep their playoff aspirations alive after going down to 4-5 following Friday’s loss.
“We’re hoping he’ll be better by Sunday,” said the champion bench tactician, “We’ll see if we made the right decision on Sunday.”
