IT was nothing but a second half meltdown for Rain or Shine.
Coach Yeng Guiao refuted that overconfidence led to the Elasto Painters’ 83-90 loss to Barangay Ginebra Saturday night in their quarterfinal playoffs, but more of a series of turnovers and forced shots.
The Elasto Painters held a 60-45 lead in the third period until everything went wrong for them, allowing the Kings to rally back and win and forced a winner-take-all showdown for a semifinals berth in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
“Hindi naman (over confidence) I don't think so," said Guiao, whose team negated its twice-to-beat advantage in the playoffs following the loss.
"We just played bad defense in the second half and we turned the ball over 16 times in the second half. So it's really what killed us not complacency.
"I don't think so. I don't think it's (complacency) a factor in the game. We just lost our poise when we started turning the ball over," he added.
Star player Paul Lee could not agree more. He said the Elasto Painters were not executing their plays properly and did some stupid decisions in the stretch.
"We are not sharing the ball in the second half. We had 14 assists in the first half pero five na lang noong second half. And we were not playing defense in the second half, we gave them 51 points I think," he said.
"Siguro we were forcing our shots and we were not playing defense."
The sophomore guard knows momentum is on Ginebra’s side and that Rain or Shine needs to cut down on its turnovers if it is to advance into the next round.
"Kailangan lang i-tama yung mga defenseive lapses namin at bawasan `yung mga stupid decision gaya ng mga turnovers," he said.
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