Powerade vows no more meltdown

MANILA, Philippines - Powerade coach Bo Perasol was caught flat-footed by Rain Or Shine’s switching one-on-one defense in Game 1 of their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinal series at the Cuneta Astrodome the other night but said it won’t happen again in what he expects to be a long drawn-out war.

With former national coach Yeng Guiao masterfully calling the shots, the Elasto Painters came from behind to outlast the Tigers, 114-97, to draw first blood. Game 2 is set at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tonight.

“I think that’s probably the extreme type of defense they can use against us and I’m glad we saw it in Game 1 and not in a Game 7,” said Perasol. “We did a good job of controlling the pace in the first half but lost our offensive rhythm in the third and fourth quarters when they started switching on us. They showed no respect for our big men and stayed close to our shooters. We thought we could outscore them one-on-one with our mismatches. We forgot to trust in the system that brought us to the semifinals. We forgot about movement and teamwork. But it’s better to lose early than later in a best-of-seven series.”

Perasol admitted the Tigers got cocky after sprinting on top, 54-43, at the half. “We’re greenhorns in the playoffs,” he said. “Maybe, we got a little too comfortable because in the first half, we hit our shots, made our stops and limited them to only three fastbreak points. We thought it was game over. We learned our lesson the hard way. We now realize that in the playoffs, no lead is safe and any team can come back from a big deficit.”

When Rain Or Shine tightened up its defense in the second half, the Tigers suffered power failure. “Our flow comes from our offense, it’s what energizes us,” said Perasol. “Gary (David) got his points but they limited our other guys. In the second half, we were out of synch offensively and it led to turnovers which they converted into easy baskets. We were hurt by 21 turnovers. We’ll address this problem in Game 2. We’ll review our points of reference in previous games and remember what got us to the semfinals. We lost our flow by playing one-on-one and relying on isolations. We’ll do better next time.”

What contributed to Powerade’s meltdown was Marcio Lassiter’s career-low two points. “Marcio is a quiet guy, very confident in what he can do,” said Perasol. “I remember after a game where Michael Jordan didn’t play up to par, his coach Doug Collins told him that’s not who you are, that you can do better than that. It’s the same thing with Marcio. You don’t teach players like Jordan or Marcio what to do. They know how to bounce back and Marcio will. In Game 1, we put him on Paul Lee. Marcio did a good job holding Lee down to three points in the first half and just before halftime, stole the ball from him harap-harapan. Maybe, Marcio’s defense took away from his offense. He got into foul trouble. But we’ll keep Marcio on Lee with help from guys like Francis (Allera), Rudy (Lingganay), Gary and Jvee (Casio). Marcio’s our best-on-on-one defender. He’ll know how to adjust.”

More than Lee, Perasol said the Tigers must focus on containing Jeff Chan. “Two guys hit us for 52 points,” said Perasol. “Lee will be Lee so you expect him to produce but I think we’ll win this series if we don’t allow Chan to play big. In Game 1, we didn’t recover to challenge Chan’s shots on time.  We should’ve covered him all the way. They create shots for Chan, they look for him, so we’ve got to be aware where he is. He’s a spot-up shooter. He won’t go one-on-one.”

In the series opener, Chan erupted for 27 points and Lee, 25. It was Lee who led the charge in the second half, netting seven in the third period and 15 in the fourth. Additionally, Larry Rodriguez provided interior sock with 16 points. 

Perasol said he’s confident Powerade can bounce back. “We can match up with Rain Or Shine,” he said. “After losing Game 1, we know where to adjust and we’ve got time to do it. We know we can beat this team but it’s all about wanting it more. Rain Or Shine won’t give it to us on a silver platter. We’ve got to take it from them.”

Perasol said the Tigers can’t afford to stray from what they’re supposed to execute. “We need to rally behind our system,” he said. “We’ve got to believe and trust in ourselves. This is going to be a long series and we must be ready to do what it takes to win. They used a non-conventional defense in Game 1. If they used what I call traditional defense and won, I would be worried. We know that if we’re faced with this same situation again, we can’t resort to reacting individually because that’s not how we got to where we are.”