FOR the second straight game, the NLEX Road Warriors were clobbered in the battle of the boards and beaten in their own kind of running game.
The result had the Road Warriors crashing to their second straight loss after winning the first two games in the PBA Philippine Cup and head coach Yeng Guiao and the team’s new star player, Kiefer Ravena, agreed they need to address the problems as fast as possible.
“We’re a little concerned since we lost the last two games in similar fashion. We were not rebounding the way we should. We lost rebounding by -19 in this game. Then, the last game, we lost rebounding by -9 only on the offensive boards. So, I think that’s something we should fix before our game on Friday,” Mr. Guiao said.
“One thing we’ve also noticed is that we’re beaten in our own game. We’re supposed to be the running team, but the teams that beat us are outrunning us. That’s another thing we have to break down and see what the problem is.”
Against the Magnolia Hotshots, the Road Warriors lost the rebounding battle, 61-42. In their previous loss to the Phoenix Fuel Masters, NLEX also gave up nine more rebounds to its opponent.
Mr. Ravena shared the same observation, but mentioned that rebounding is not just about timing in getting the ball but also about effort.
“Coach Yeng doesn’t want this kind of losses where we lacked effort. We were outrebounded, 19 rebounds. But it’s all about effort. That’s one thing Coach Yeng doesn’t want to see. You can play games by shooting bad, but Coach Yeng doesn’t want us to play with lack of effort,” added Mr. Ravena, who played a career-game, finishing with 31 points four rebounds and five assists.
But not even Mr. Ravena’s breakout offensive performance can carry the Road Warriors to victory and Mr. Guiao thinks his prized rookie will need the support of his teammates for them to win more games.
“Kiefer played a great game, offensively. But that’s not our style of play. We don’t really want one player to take over the game offensively and tried to bring us or carry us on his shoulders for us to win. But of course, sometimes, you don’t have a choice. If all your other offensive options are not working, we just have to go to what is working. In this situation, it was Kiefer,” said Mr. Guiao.
“I told the team, if we have to do it that way, we don’t have to win too many games. With our system, we always won more games when more people got involved and more people scored in double figures. Kiefer played a great game offensively but he didn’t get enough support from the rest of the team. We’ll just take these as our lessons and hope that by Friday,” added Mr. Guiao. — Rey Joble
