Quarterfinal exit will only toughen Road Warriors
NLEX came into the PBA Philippine Cup playoffs with a twice-to-beat cushion, giving seasoned coach Jong Uichico and his charges all the edge they needed against Rain or Shine—only for the lack of experience to show its ugly head at the end.
The No. 2-seeded Road Warriors fell to the battle-hardened Elasto Painters, the seventh-ranked squad, on Saturday night, 103-92, as their win-once edge was exhausted.
“How do you say it? I guess we’re not used to it all yet,” Uichico, who has multiple championships, said on the heels of the loss at Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Malate that ended NLEX’s season.
“There were moments when we looked like we belonged, but generally, we’re still not used to it all,” he went on.
NLEX, which topped classification with an 8-3 record, looked poised for a semifinals breakthrough twice in these quarterfinals, but just had very few answers whenever Rain or Shine and its youthful crew hit a groove when it mattered most.
“Rain or Shine—that’s a true and tested [team],” said Uichico, who was looking to lead the NLEX franchise to its first semifinal appearance after taking over Frankie Lim around June last year. “They’ve been in the semifinals in the past two conferences already, so they already knew what to do in situations like this.
“I give credit to coach Yeng for taking advantage of our weaknesses. We were in the game in both instances,” he went on. “But whenever Rain or Shine gained momentum, we just couldn’t recover. This was no longer like the elimination [phase] where there was less pressure.”
There was progress
Despite an another quarterfinal exit, Uichico insists that the Road Warriors were able to log some sort of progress. Especially when this bid is stacked against the underwhelming outings of the conferences before.
“The first two conferences were terrible,” he said. “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.”
The upcoming Rookie Draft will be key to Uichico’s vision.
“We’ll have a first-round pick, so we’re going to improve [with that],” he said. “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].”
The sting of a botched job lingers, but Uichico is keeping a rosy outlook. Having a veteran tactician with nine PBA crowns to show for, he knows that growing pains are part of building something sustainable.
“There’s always a first time, and it’s sort of good that this happened. Because it’s through [adversities] where you truly learn,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to use [this] as a tool.”
