AS expected, it took a while before for the NLEX dugout door to wing open after the Road Warriors dropped their third straight game in the PBA Comissioner's Cup, 89-81, at the hands of Mahindra.
That means NLEX got another tongue-lashing from fiery coach Yeng Guiao.
"That's coach for you," said Wayne Chism, familiar with Guiao's temper since his days with Rain or Shine. "Coach is not happy. He expresses what his disappointments are and what he doesn't like, so we got to take what he says as a lesson and not as a criticism."
"We just got to take this as a learning curve and restore confidence back in coach that we can make better decisions," he added.
Chism put up big numbers in the defeat, scoring 28 points on top of 21 boards and four blocks. But save for Jansen Rios, no other Road Warrior breached double digits in the game - something that's beginning to look more like a norm than an exception for NLEX.
[See James White delivers double-double as Mahindra extends NLEX misery]
Chism, though, refused to put the blame on his teammates.
"I'm not gonna take anything away from my team, they're doing a great job," said the returning reinforcement. "They're learning as players, they're young and they're learning from the mistakes that we make. Hopefully we can win a close one soon."
Even Chism was guilty of missing a few missing some open looks near the end and he won't absolve himself from blame,
"We need to continue to work hard and not make turnovers. We got to make our open shots. I missed a lot of them, too. Once we get those, we make open shots, I think it's gonna be hard for teams to pull out a win from us."