RAIN or Shine’s six-game losing streak during the PBA Philippine Cup was one stressful time for head coach Chris Gavina.
Gavina looks back on Rain or Shine losing streak
“Going through six-game losing streak, I didn’t get much sleep. There was a lot of donut-eating and binge-eating,” said Gavina.
Gavina can set the donuts aside as Rain or Shine has started winning again. The Elasto Painters are now on a three-game winning streak, defeating Terrafirma, 97-82, on Saturday to stay right in the thick of the fight for a quarterfinal berth with a 4-6 win-loss record.
The six straight defeats actually equaled that 0-6 start of the Elasto Painters during the 2009-2010 Philippine Cup.
“I wish it came earlier but it’s coming at the right time. Guys are really finding themselves right now and I’m happy with the development,” said Gavina.
During the winning streak, Rain or Shine has also defeated playoff contenders such as NLEX and Blackwater amidst that skid that saw the Elasto Painters lose some close games against quality teams such as Barangay Ginebra, San Miguel, and Meralco.
Gavina said they’ve been improving and learning from the experience of losing games during the conference.
“It’s amazing that we are in this position considering that we had to go through that six-game losing streak, dealt with a great deal of adversity during this month. We went through a whole month of not winning. Now, three wins in a row, lessons are kinda learned through the fire.”
The level of composure showed on Saturday with guys such as Andrei Caracut, Anton Asistio, and Santi Santillan stepping up against Terrafirma where they combined for 51 points in the contest.
“Today was a great game for a lot of our third team guys to get quality minutes and develop that next-man up mentality for us,” said Gavina.
“It’s a high level league we are in. It’s hard to learn on the fly sometimes for younger players. They just happened to go through the fire. Guys like Andrei, Anton, Santi, Mamu, Mike have all really gone through a level of adversity and challenges that they have to overcome. We are glad that they are learning from it,” said Gavina.
Rain or Shine hopes to extend its winning streak as it faces Magnolia on Wednesday to strengthen further its bid for a quarterfinal berth.
“We are extremely happy with the position we are in. We got one more really tough game against Magnolia Wednesday, it’s do or die for us really,” said Gavina.
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