RAIN or Shine admittedly is ranged against a gigantic task when it takes on powerhouse San Miguel Beer Friday in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals duel at the PhilSports Arena.
It doesn’t mean coach Yeng Guiao and his seventh-ranked Elasto Painters are not bent on putting up a whale of a fight themselves to offset the second-seeded Beermen’s win-once advantage.
“Pag na-disgrasya mo iyan ng minsan baka ma-pressure na sa susunod,” said Guiao before adding: “Ang hirap lang i-rattle ng San Miguel, mas beterano sila sa amin.”
Moreover, Guiao also acknowledged it would be tough for his team to stymie SMB’s high-octane offense which features some very skilled locals, but mainly centered on June Mar Fajardo and Bennie Boatwright.
“Malaking problema talaga si June Mar at saka si Boatwright. I think their combination is, I wouldn’t say unguardable, but parang version sila ni Arwind and June Mar. Only Boatwright is probably a better shooter and a bigger player who can also post up,” noted Guiao.
“So parang they’re very comfortable running the high-low (offense) and they’re surrounded by locals who are very talented and can also score,” added Guiao.
“So inaayos namin ngayon kung paano depensahan iyon. We have some ideas on how to do it, but we won’t know until the game kung uubra ‘yung mga plano namin.”
SMB actually won their lone elimination round meeting, 115-110, last Nov. 29. But that was when the Beermen still had Ivan Aska as reinforcement, Terrence Romeo and Vic Manuel were injured and Don Trollano still has to be acquired in a multi-team trade from NLEX.
That game also marked the league debut of Demetrius Treadwell, who came in as a replacement for Dajuan Summers and has since led Rain or Shine to a six-game winning streak while combining with the likes of Andrei Caracut, Santo Santillan, Beau Belga, and Keith Datu.
Still, Guiao knows preventing or at least limiting SMB’s slew of talents, including CJ Perez, Jericho Cruz, Marcio Lassiter, and Mo Tautuaa, to name a few, should prove to be a handful for his side.
“The locals of San Miguel are just too talented for us to defend them on single coverage matchups. So kailangan talaga may konsepto ka nu’ng kung paano kayo magtutulungan,” said Guiao. “So walang chink sa armor nila offensively.”
It is on the other end of the court that Guiao hopes his team would find the much-needed opening. “Maybe we can also attack their defense. Doon medyo meron kaming slight advantage because I think we can play a faster-paced game,” he offered.
“So we will try to maximize yuong advantage namin na iyon. But at the same time if we cannot solve iyung combination ni June Mar and Boatwright wala kaming chance sa San Miguel.” (NC)
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