RAIN or Shine was ousted early in the PBA 50th Season Governors’ Cup in a conference where some felt was its best chance of finally achieving a breakthrough of reaching the finals for the first time in 10 years.
The Elasto Painters were on the side of the playoff bracket with NLEX, Converge, and Phoenix Super LPG, instead of San Miguel, Barangay Ginebra, TNT, and Magnolia, all of which made it to the finals over the last decade.
Rain or Shine was the only team from the four in its side of the bracket that has finals experience.
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But their championship bid was once again derailed at the end of the quarterfinals after Rain or Shine lost to Converge on Friday, 120-109, losing the best-of-five series, 3-1.
Converge will be facing NLEX, the top seed in Group A, in the semifinals that will start on December after the Road Warriors beat Phoenix Super LPG via sweep in the quarterfinals.
After making it to the semifinals in all three conferences of the 49th Season, Rain or Shine closed the 50th Season with only one semifinal appearance in the Commissioner’s Cup, and quarterfinal exits in the Philippine and Governors’ Cup.
Head coach Yeng Guiao, however, will be the first to say that their bracket isn’t an easy one, mentioning semifinalists Converge and NLEX are ripe to become title contenders.
“Hindi naman mahina ‘yung Converge saka NLEX,” Guiao said in his exit interview after Game 4 of the Governors’ Cup quarterfinals. “So I think that’s just an illusion. You put any of these teams in the other bracket, may chance pa rin.”
“Kung titignan mo on paper, baka manghinayang ka, sana nairaos namin. Pero mahirap kalaban ‘yung Converge in a series,” Guiao also said.
The Rain or Shine mentor reemphasized the improvement of Converge this conference with the pieces it now has, as proven by the FiberXers’ domination of the Elasto Painters, whose only loss in a series was in Game 1 after they squandered a 21-point lead.
“May experience na sila. Medyo buo na ‘yung sistema nila. Kumpleto naman sila sa materyales ever since eh. Ever since naman talaga, ‘yung talent nila, hindi naman kapos. Pang-championship nga ‘yung talent nila," he said.
“Hindi mo masasabing manghihinayang ka dahil malakas pa rin ‘yung grupo na ‘to."
Despite the exit, Guiao remains satisfied with the overall performance of the team, with the result of the series not an indicative of how they played.
But Guiao rued the 22 turnovers on Friday which was their perennial problem of the series.
“Of course, we are disappointed pero maganda naman ‘yung series. ‘Yung tatlong talo namin, merong chance na manalo pa rin eh. ‘Yung Game 4, we were down by 17. Nakabalik kami, and then bad start nung third quarter, we gave up 12 points. In two minutes, nakabalik pa rin kami," he explained.
“We were in the game in the last three or four minutes of the game. We were in it. Pero turnovers ulit. The perennial problem namin in the series, ‘yung talo kami sa possession game. And possession game is all about rebounding. We were giving up too many offensive rebounds at saka ang dami naming turnovers," he continued.
“But despite that, meron kaming chance manalo kahit na ‘yung mga department ng laro na ‘yun, medyo hindi namin maremedyuhan."
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