Miscalculation, free throw woes doomed Rain or Shine vs TNT – Guiao

MANILA, Philippines – Rain or Shine guard Jhonard Clarito may have miscalculated in his late layup attempt that all but secured TNT’s victory over Elasto Painters in the PBA Philippine Cup opener Wednesday, head coach Yeng Guiao said. 
 
Rain or Shine was trailing by three, 105-108, following a split from the line by Andrei Caracut with 34 seconds remaining. 

On the other end, TNT’s Jayson Castro tried to punch in a 3-pointer for the dagger but missed. 

With about 10 seconds remaining, the Elasto Painters were able to get the ball to the other end, with Caracut handing the ball off to Clarito. 

And with about five seconds left in the game, the 27-year-old wing drove to the basket and banked in a floater to cut the lead to one, 107-108. The only problem: there were just 2.3 seconds remaining in the game. 

With the time winding down, Castro dribbled the clock away, securing TNT’s victory. 

After the game, Guiao said he instructed the team to get out in transition and either get a layup or an open three if they were able to force a miss after Caracut’s split. 

“The game still had about 35 seconds left when we called the timeout. We were anticipating that they would have about 15 seconds left on our end if they use up the clock. But in that 15 second (window), even if we’re able to score two points, we still have about six or seven seconds, you can still foul,” Guiao told reporters in Filipino after the game. 

“But what happened was there were just two seconds left. So, Jhonard’s computation came up short. Maybe at that point, an option was to take a three,” he added. 

But more than the last play, Guiao rued the team’s free throw shooting as they sank just 24 of their 42 attempts. 

He also acknowledged the team’s youth as he stressed the team’s need to learn how to finish games. 

“We need to learn how to finish games, how to play the end game. We missed 18 free throws and lost by one point, let us just make the analysis simple. If we could have made only two out of the 18, we could have won the game,” the coach said. 

“Aside from that, it was the breaks of the game. When Adrian Nocum was getting up a layup, he was open and he missed when he hurt his calf… Shaun