Phoenix coach Ariel Vanguardia. PBA IMAGES
ANTIPOLO—Losing its second straight blowout game with the latest a 134-109 humbling at the hands of TNT, Phoenix coach Ariel Vanguardia admits his team is still searching for chemistry.
“Chemistry-wise, we’re still figuring out each other. And you saw it in this game,” he said.
The Fuel Masters lost hold of the game in the second quarter, where the KaTropa fired a telling 16-0 blast to grab a 48-38 advantage and never looked back.
Things went downhill from there with Phoenix even staring at a 35-point lead, 122-87, at one point in the fourth quarter and allowed TNT to shoot 60 percent shooting from the field.
“Basketball is a make or miss game. We couldn’t make our shots and they were making their shots. We got left behind,” said Vanguardia.
“That’s how strong TNT is. You blink and there goes your momentum, there goes your chance. We blinked on playing defense and we let them score on transition, open shots,” he said.
However, Vanguardia shared that he is still not pressing the panic button yet..
“Whether it’s a one-point loss or a blowout, it’s still a loss. We’re going to go back on what we’re not doing better and a lot of those is on the defensive side. We’ll try to figure out what got us our 38-32 lead (in the second quarter), not that run that was telling. We’ll try to find the right combinations inside.”
Phoenix eyes to bounce back against Ginebra on Saturday in Davao City.