Photo by Tristan Rafael Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Yeng Guiao walked out of the losing dugout late Monday night and was swarmed by reporters waiting for what Rain or Shine’s fire-breathing head coach had to say after the Elasto Painters were pushed to the edge of a cliff.
“Well, it’s not over,” he said grinning with a villainous-sounding laugh.
Guiao’s body language appeared as if his team wasn’t at the losing end of a 114-108 scoreline of a pivotal Game 3 in a best-of-five semifinals.
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The eloquent and outspoken Guiao, as always, isn’t a picture of defeat and is hardly seen with any sign of weakness. Despite the fact that the Painters have a lot of concerns heading into an elimination game against a hot-shooting San Miguel Beermen on Wednesday.
The Painters came into Game 3 thinking they’ve taken the fight out of the Beermen, who suffered a demoralizing loss in Game 2 after losing despite leading by 20 points with only a quarter and half left and making a franchise-best 21 3-pointers.
But Monday’s result left Rain or Shine with questions that needed to be answered right away if it wants to stay alive.
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“It’s still about the 3-point shooting. I think they shot at about 60-plus percent from the 3-point line,” said Guiao. “I thought that after one torrid night of shooting from San Miguel, I think at least for tonight, the percentages would drop down but they got higher.”
“So we just cant pray and hope that, that outside shooting is going to go down unless we find a way to stop it. We have to do something about it and not just pray on it and hope that the law of averages catches up with them,” he added.
The Beermen shot 58% from the 3-point area in Game 2 and outdid themselves in terms of efficiency with nearly as much in quantity in Game 3 — shooting 18-of-27 which is good for 67%.
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The other was matching up with San Miguel. The Beermen were able to exploit the Painters’ matchup problems especially with Arizona Reid having his way.
“We were forced to play small because of the foul situation of our bigs. We already don’t have Beau (Belga) and Jervy (Cruz) but the early fouls on Raymond (Almazan) and JR (Quiñahan) forced us to take Wendell (McKines) out of AZ (Reid) and put him on Fajardo something which we really dont want because we want AZ being defended by McKines,” Guiao pointed out.
“He’s (Reid) just so comfortable being defended by Gabe (Norwood) or Jireh (Ibañes). We were forced out of that matchup because we had to preserve our bigs and we are short of bigs especially against Fajardo.”
Reid was instrumental in a key stretch in the fourth quarter for San Miguel with Wendell McKines tasked to cover the Beermen’s 6-foot-11 MVP June Mar Fajardo. He wound up with 37 points built on seven triples.
READ: Determined AZ Reid ready to close it out for Beermen
“We put McKines on June Mar and that was a really good matchup. But then AZ was hurting us since McKines wasn’t defending him.”
Help is on its way for Rain or Shine with Beau Belga, who missed Games 2 and 3 with a right foot injury, expected to return in Game 4.
Guiao said Belga, a valuable presence on both ends, is feeling “a lot better.”
“Hopefully with the win in Game 2, we were able to buy sometime for Beau to get back into playing and maybe try to extend the series with a healthy big man,” Guiao said. “I really think if Beau’s around we still have a big problem but it won’t be as big.”
“A lot better but of course he’s not going to be 100 percent on Wednesday but if he’s 75 or 80 percent that’s good enough.”
Having Belga back enables the Painters to return to their normal matchups as the bruiser is more equipped to deal with the size differential against Fajardo. Also, McKines can now cover Reid while swingmen Gabe Norwood or Jireh Ibañes can be used against the Beermen’s guards where they are more effective defensively.
“They just have too many options, they have too many offensive weapons that if we mess up with our matchups they can beat us with their sheer talent,” Guiao said on San Miguel, which is also getting a huge boost with Alex Cabagnot’s return to form.
“We just have to help each other out and be able to get Beau back into circulation and relieve some of that matchup problem,” he added. “JR did his best, Raymond did his best but they are just too small for June Mar and we have to collapse on them. And if we collapse on them, the 3-point shot is always going to be open. Maybe if we have Beau we don’t have to collapse on June Mar that much. CFC