IMPORT Joshua Dollard took things in stride Barako Bull’s 103-85 rout at the hands of Air21, adding the Energy can’t focus on a single loss considering the PBA Commissioner’s Cup is just a very short tournament.
“We just need to get back our focus. This is a short tournament,” he said after the Energy absorbed their second loss in three outings Friday night. “At the same time, we got time to change things, remain focus and keep our heads up.”
Dollard, the shortest import in the mid-season conference, admitted struggling against the Express’ swarming defense anchored on fellow import Herve Lamizana, The Barako import finished with a PBA personal-career low of 12 points on just 4-of-16 shooting, while accounting for seven of the team’s nine turnovers.
Dollard averaged 44.5 points prior to the Energy’s meeting against the Express.
As good as Air21’s defense was how bad Barako’s defense.
“You know, we (Energy) played real bad on defense. Every time a lot of the offense depended on me, but every time you can’t rely on offense, the effort has to be on defense,” Dollard said.
"We made a lot of mistakes on defense and rotation. We tried to emphasize on effort, but we’re just not in the game, so we have to forget this game, fix what needs to be fixed and get ready for Sunday.
Barako faces unbeaten and solo leader Talk N Text next.
“You just got to throw your best back. I don’t hang my head, this (tournament) is a game of ups and downs, so we just got to fight back and keep working,” Dollard added.
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