RICCI Rivero took the blame after being on the wrong end of Marcio Lassiter’s dagger in Phoenix’s 107-104 loss to San Miguel in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Tuesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
With the Fuel Masters up by a point, Rivero left Lassiter open for a bit – enough for the SMB sharpshooter to catch a Quincy Miller pass and launch a left-corner jumper that hit the bottom of the net for the 105-104 lead with two seconds left in a well-drawn play off a timeout.
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“I think it’s on the players. It’s on me,” Rivero said.
“I take full responsibility on that since Marcio was my man. Those are the little things na kailangan namin, ako, especially, na ma-work on.”
“It just shows na we still have a lot of room to improve on, especially, again, ako, kasi I take full responsibility of everything that I do there, especially the mistakes I’ve done,” the sophomore wingman out of University of the Philippines and La Salle added.
Blowing that defensive cover compounded Rivero’s rough-shooting night that saw him miss all but one of his nine attempts to finish with four points and two turnovers, although he had four boards and three assists in 24 minutes of play.
“We can see naman my shots weren’t falling talaga, even the layups, so I was trying to set my teammates up, especially late game. Even though I’m not making those shots, I think there’s still something in San Miguel that they try to collapse on the drives, so mas nao-open din yung tira ng teammates ko,” he shared.
“I don’t want to look for my shots, even the past two games. I was trying to create for my teammates because I think mas makakatulong din siya sa team,” he added.
As a unit, Rivero is hoping the Fuel Masters can learn to protect leads after Lassiter’s go-ahead basket completed a comeback from 16 points down – just four days after the Fuel Masters wasted a 23-point lead against Meralco last Friday.
“We have to take care of the ball pa,” Rivero said. “Kung feel namin siguro na yun na yun, baka meron pa kaming mas kaya pang gawin.”
“Mahirap siya, pero at least we’re there. I just want to look at the bigger picture na wag muna kaming mag-rely na parang, ‘Okay, talo na naman. Ayaw ko na’ ‘di ba? We have to always move forward,” he added.
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