NLEX’S road to the semifinals of the season-ending PBA Philippine Cup hit a big roadblock—which it never recovered from—at the hands of Rain or Shine.
Road Warriors coach Jong Uichico, however, maintained his troops did better in the import-less meet compared to the first two conferences, adding they only need a little bit of improvement that they will gain from the annual rookie Draft on Sept. 7.
“The first two conferences were terrible. I think this was a better gauge of what we can do. I still think we can build on this and I think that’s what we should do,” Uichico said after NLEX dropped a 92-103 loss to the Elasto Painters in their knockout quarterfinals match over the weekend. “We’ll have a first-round pick, so we’re going to improve with that.
“Then a second-round pick, so we’re going to improve again. Then we’ll try to make moves on free agents. Hopefully, that will fill the holes we have in the team,” he added.
The Road Warriors appeared headed in the right direction when they finished the eliminations with an 8-3 card for No. 2 and a twice-to-beat advantage in the Last Eight.
But NLEX simply ran against a more tested and hungrier seventh-seed Rain or Shine crew.
“Rain or Shine, that’s a true and tested team. They’ve been in the semifinals in the past two conferences already, so they already knew what to do in situations like this,” Uichico said. “I give credit to coach Yeng (Guiao) for taking advantage of our weaknesses. We were in the game in both instances.
“But whenever Rain or Shine gained momentum, we just couldn’t recover. This was no longer like the elimination round, where there was less pressure.”
Only some fine-tuning and this experience will surely galvanize the Road Warriors, according to the multi-titled Uichico.
“How do you say it? I guess we’re not used to it all yet. There were moments when we looked like we belonged, but generally, we’re still not used to it all,” he said. “There’s always a first time, and it’s sort of good that this happened because it’s through adversities that you truly learn.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to use this as a tool.”
