NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao remains upbeat about his team’s chances to reach the 2022 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals even after being pushed to a do-or-die situation by an inspired Alaska on Wednesday evening.
“I still feel very good about getting to the semifinals,” said the outspoken mentor moments after their 79-93 defeat at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
That, despite knowing that his Road Warriors have been in this exact same situation not so long ago that ended in utter disappointment.
It could be recalled that the MVP-owned franchise finished the 2019 Governors’ Cup elimination round as the top-seed with an 8-3 record, arming itself with a coveted twice-to-beat advantage heading into the quarters.
The team had replicated such this season, albeit finishing the eliminations as the second seed. Still, and importantly, they’re equipped with a win-once incentive, indeed a huge weapon to shoot for the semis outright.
However, NLEX blew its edge against eventual BPC Christian Standhardinger and an injury-hit NorthPort, falling on the wrong side of PBA history as the fourth no. 1 seed to be booted out by the eighth-ranked team.
Guiao remembers all of that, and he definitely doesn’t want history to repeat itself as they hope to return to the semis after nearly four years.
“I know we’ve been here before,” said the champion coach. “And we don’t want a repetition of that bad experience we had two or three years ago.
“We’ll be working hard in practice tomorrow and Friday, so we can get back here on Saturday and try to get to the semifinals,” he added.
But Guiao knows that desire alone won’t be enough to do so. He sees the need for his wards to be better in the win-or-go-home, especially after a dismal three-point shooting performance and poor effort on rebounding.
NLEX made just two of its 23 triples while it allowed Alaska to shoot 40-percent from deep. And it lost the battle of the boards big, 47-63.
“I guess the story is in the three-point shooting, ‘no. We were eight-percent sa three-point shots namin, and they were 40-plus. So anytime you’re shooting 40-percent of your three-point shots, you always have a good chance of winning the game. Not only that, we lost rebounding by a huge margin. Double digits. I think it’s negative 15 or 16 rebounds kami,” Guiao said.
“So we had one good quarter but three bad ones, so ‘yung ano namin don is we just have to go back to practice, and find a way, siguro, to execute better defensively. We were kinda drawn into the penetrations that when(ever) they kick out, trying to chase that outside shot we were a split second late or we were half a step late,” the 62-year-old continued.
“And that wasn’t good enough to challenge their three-point shooting, that’s why they made a lot of them. To me, looking at the stats, it’s rebounding and three-point shooting.”
Guiao also noted the need to give new import Cameron Clark more touches. The replacement of KJ McDaniels finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds, though he only scored seven in the second half.
Photo by PBA Images
“I’m happy with his performance. He had 25 points and 16 rebounds. The only thing is, partly our fault, he did not get enough touches in the second half. I think ano lang siya, seven points,” he said.
“And that’s not enough for an import. But that’s not totally his fault, because we did not look for him, we did not find him, so that’s a lesson for us to bring to Saturday’s game.”
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