BEAU Belga feels Rain or Shine needs to regain its old, fiery identity for the team to get over its recent humps in the PBA.
The Elasto Painters kissed their 40th season goodbye after surrendering to San Miguel Beer, 117-110, in Game Four of their Governors’ Cup semifinal series on Wednesday night.
And Belga believes the team, which has built a reputation as arguably the most physical in the league today, has lost some of its competitive edge.
The Painters’ resident enforcer compared the current team to the one that emerged 2012 Governors Cup champion.
“(We had guys like) Ronnie Matias, Larry Rodriguez, and Ronjay Buenafe na talagang kung basagan ng mukha, talagang basagan ng mukha,” Belga recalled about that Rain or Shine roster which has Jamelle Cornley as import.
The Elasto Painters showed flashes of their old style against the Beermen in Game Four when they tried to engage June Mar Fajardo in excessive physical plays in an attempt to take the SMB behemoth out of his game, but none that resulted in bench-clearing incidents.
“Ito naman (current team), kaya naman nito eh (makipag-basagan ng mukha),” Belga said.
“Pero sabi ni coach Yeng (Guiao) hindi pe-pwedeng masyadong mabait. Hindi pwedeng masyado kang friendly. Hindi kami effective na pa-chill out chill out lang eh.”
“So kailangan siguro maging barumbado na ulit,” Belga continued. “Yung ang nature namin eh. Dun kami sanay. Yung siguro yung kulang namin.”
And the stocky slotman believes a vacation full of pondering will do the trick.
“Yun yung pag-aaralan…at tingnan natin, baka sakaling sa susunod na season eh kahit na preseason o tuneup games pa lang, eh nakikipagbasagan na ng mukha yung mga player namin.”
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