YENG Guiao exonerated Andrei Caracut from that costly turnover in Rain or Shine’s final play in an 88-84 loss to TNT in Game 1 of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals series Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Down by four, the Elasto Painters were obviously going for a wild four-point shot in the hope of sending the game into overtime with three seconds remaining.
Unfortunately, Caracut inbounded the ball straight into the hands of Roger Pogoy – instead of Caelan Tiongson – as the team failed to put up a final attempt at the buzzer.
READ: TNT relies on Castro, defense to thwart Rain or Shine in Game One
Guiao said the play was obviously a ‘desperation attempt’ on the part of the Elasto Painters, although he wasn’t furious about the bad pass committed by the 29-year-old Caracut.
“I think it will only add to the experience of Andrei who was the inbounder, kasi siya yung point guard namin, siya yung inaasahan k na magde-deliver ng maayos na pasa. Pero siguro learning experience na lang iyon para sa kanya,” said Guiao.
“Disappointed lang ako kasi sana umabot man lang doon sa pinagpapasahan namin. It was really a bad pass.”
Nonetheless, the Rain or Shine coach believes TNT wasn’t going to allow his team to go for a game-tying four point shot, given that the Tropang Giga have been on the losing end of a game-winning four-pointer in the past against the Converge FiberXers.
“Alam mo naman they’re going to give you a two-point or a three-point shot, but not a four-point shot,” said Guiao, who bared import Deon Thompson was the first option.
“So the three-point line was really well-guarded. Ang ibig sabihin the percentages or the chances of you making that is really low. But of course, you still have to make an attempt.”
But in all, Guiao was satisfied with how his team competed in the opener of the best-of-seven series except for the Tropang Giga shooting 14-of-34 from three-point range for 41 percent.
Jason Castro was near perfect from that area by going 6-of-7, while Calvin Oftana was 6-of-8, and Roger Pogoy 2-of-5.
Castro finished with a team-high 24 points, Oftana added 22, and Pogoy with nine.
“The problem now is how to contest or limit yung three-point shooting nila. Of course, Oftana, Pogoy, Jason will always be a problem. You can’t give them any small window. Kapag maliit na bintana sa kanila kaya nilang ma-convert yung mga three-point attempts nila,” said Guiao.
“So we’ll work on that. And hopefully on Friday (Game2), we’ll be able to defend that three-point shot a lot better.”
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
