PIN the blame for San Miguel Alab Pilipinas' tough 98-93 defeat to the Macau Wolf Warriors last Sunday on coach Jimmy Alapag.
"You know, I didn't have the guys ready to play tonight," Alapag said after the home loss at the Filoil Arena that snapped Alab's four-game win streak.
"I have to do a better job making sure that when that ball is thrown up to start the game, that we're ready to play tonight. And that's on me as a coach to make sure that I have my guys ready to play," he added.
The Philippine side found themselves in a 13-point hole right in the second quarter and had to play catch-up the rest of the way.
That set Alab up for the fall, Alapag said.
"We dug ourselves a hole early, and I just kind of set the tone for the game," he said.
"It just seemed like we were always down eight, down five, down two, but we never could string enough stops and make enough plays just to settle our horses, whether it was needing a stop, grabbing the 50-50 ball, or making a shot.
"It just seemed like we could never get over the hump and you're playing catch-up the whole game, it just seemed like we ran out of time."
There's more.
Sam Deguara found himself battling foul trouble all game long while fellow World Import Khalif Wyatt went 1-of-8 from beyond the arc, leaving Nick King to do much of the work with his 33 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists.
But more than anything else, Alapag rued what he felt was a lack of effort, with the visitors outhustling the home team from start to finish.
"I honestly felt like they got almost all of the 50-50 plays, and that proved to be the difference," he said. "You lose a game by two possessions, if we would have had maybe four or five of those possessions back to us, we might have been able to sneak out of here. [with a win]"
Alapag, though, still has his full belief that his side can rebound from this tough showing, especially with the Fubon Braves, led by former NBA stud OJ Mayo, waiting in the wings on Tuesday.
"This team has shown this early in the season that we can bounce back, similar to what happened the first game of the season against Mono [Vampire]. The biggest thing for these guys is to recover because we have a quality team coming in with OJ Mayo and Maxie Esho on Tuesday," he said.
"These guys have got to rest their mind and recover so that our energy is much better come Tuesday because we're going to need it. We got to be better, and I gotta be better for these guys. You know I'll prepare us for Fubon on Tuesday and we'll see how we bounce back."
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