THOUGH naturally reserved and hard to please, Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao didn’t hold back in praising his Elasto Painters for their latest accomplishment.
For the second year in a row, the Elasto Painters are in the finals of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup and Guiao is glad that they were able to find their way back despite obstacles along the way.
And they did it at the expense of the league’s most dominant team in the past two seasons, San Miguel Beer, knocking out the Beermen, 3-1, in their best-of-five semifinal series to finally have some success in their rivalry.
After three import changes and various injuries to deal with, the Elasto Painters were able to hurdle the roadblocks on their way to the grand stage with a chance to win the franchise’s second championship in the league.
“I’m really proud of the resiliency of the team. I like to give credit to the coaching staff and to the players, who are already motivated by themselves,” said Guiao, who made his 15th overall finals appearance in the PBA, 11th in an import-laden conference.
“I’m really happy with what’s happening to the team. Most of these are all about the players’ effort. This team has been motivated from the start. We’ve been in the semifinals for the ninth straight time and we wanted to make the finals again. I didn’t need to motivate them much further,” said Guiao.
As of this report, Alaska is trying to finish off Meralco in their own best-of-five semis series as they are battling it out in Game 4.
