ANTIPOLO – Rain or Shine bid goodbye to its PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup campaign on Friday night but head coach Yeng Guiao remained proud.
The Elasto Painters fell to a 113-95 beatdown at TNT’s hands in Game 5 of their semifinal series yet the strides his wards have made in the conference outweigh the loss that sent them packing for a vacation they didn’t want to come sooner.
“We had a good run,” he reflected shortly after the game at the Ynares Center here. “I’m totally at peace with the accomplishment we had this conference.”
Safe to say, Rain or Shine became the people’s team in the season-opening tilt when it went on to finish as the no. 1 seed of Group B with a 7-3 record, highlighted by upsets against Barangay Ginebra and San Miguel Beer.
More support even came their way come the quarterfinals, where the crew ousted the veteran-laden Magnolia in a best-of-5 affair that went the limit.
Morale was sky-high for the Elasto Painters entering the best-of-7 semis battle against TNT in a battle of two top seeds during the elimination round.
Unfortunately, they proved no match to the defending conference champions’ experience, eventually falling to a gentleman’s sweep on Friday night.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finished with all-around numbers of 36 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists, and six steals in the clincher, showing for the last time how and why he was the problem which Guiao and Co. could not solve.
It didn’t help too that RoS went only for 9-of-33 from beyond the first arc, a microcosm of their struggles to shoot from deep the whole series, according to the 66-year-old, that made it harder for Aaron Fuller to operate as well.
“Marami pa rin talaga kaming kulang,” Guiao said. “‘Yung mga glaring siguro is we really didn’t shoot well from the three in the series. Throughout the series medyo hindi na-declog ‘yung middle para matulungan si Aaron.
“Kasi, talagang nagco-collapse sila kay Aaron [and] the best way to help Aaron out would be to make some threes consistently. Lalo siyang nahirapan doon.”
Guiao also lamented missing the services of Caelan Tiongson in the series due to a calf injury, which meant one less defender for the reigning Best Import.
“Nanghihinayang din ako na hindi nakapaglaro si Caelan. Caelan would’ve been helpful in defending RHJ na talagang malaking headache namin,” he said.
Then again, Guiao kept his head up high about their campaign as a whole despite its bitter end, liking in particular the progress Rain or Shine has made.
“We’ve been in the semis twice in a row, so at least that’s an indication of some degree of consistency,” he said as the team booked its second straight semis appearance after the 2024 Philippine Cup, where it fell to San Miguel.
Now it’s all about trying to be as consistent as they can be moving forward into the season and beyond, according to the champion bench tactician.
“Pero ‘yun nga, sabi ko, masaya naman ako sa conference na ‘to. Ang sa akin kasi the more games we play, the more experience we gain and the more lessons you learn,” said Guiao, who returned to the team in 2022.
“Kung makapaglaro pa kami ng ilang laro, mas nakakabuti yun sa isang team na kamukha nung sa amin. So we played 10 games and then another five games sa quarters, then another five games, so we played a total of 20 games.
“And the last 10 games we played were all high-stress, high-competition games. Doon ka matututo eh, ‘yung playoff games,” he furthered.
Of course, the goal is to make it to the semis again for the Commissioner’s Cup, a conference that has no height restrictions for imports.
“So again, next conference, we’ll try to make the semis again. Kung ‘yung unang semis namin 4-0, itong second semis namin 4-1, baka next semis 4-2 na kami. Nag-iimprove pa rin. OK pa rin sa akin ‘yun,” Guiao said jokingly.
“Makapasok ulit ng isang semis at mag-4-3, pasok ka ulit ng isang semis baka 4-3 ikaw na ‘yung makapasok. Tingnan natin. Parang ‘yun ang proseso eh.”
