NLEX did its part and took care of what it can control. Now, it’s time to pray and wait if the stars will align in its favor.
The Road Warriors will be curious observers when the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters play Magnolia Hotshots on Friday Dec. 2 as their playoff chances will depend on its result.
NLEX would want to see a ROS loss in that game which would allow them to forge a do-or-die game for the eighth and last spot in the quarterfinals after ending up tied with similar 5-7 records.
Road Warriors head coach Frankie Lim, however, was just glad with how his charges displayed the sense of urgency, winning their last two games to at least give themselves a shot at making the playoffs despite a rough start to their conference.
As to whether if they would actually make it or not, he is now leaving it all to the hands of the basketball gods.
“Before the game sinasabi ko sa kanila, I just want to think about this game and not the things na will happen tomorrow, next week or what. (Let’s) just win this game first then we'll see what will happen,” said Lim.
“Rain or Shine will play magnolia, bahala sila sa game nila basta kami tapos na, basta kami hintay kami,” he added.
Hopes of advancing to the playoffs looked bleak for the Road Warriors midway through the conference when they fell to a 3-7 record in the standings due to a series of injuries to their key players.
A couple days of rest and familiarizing his players to the new system, somehow, allowed them to stay in the race for the playoffs.
“Di kami nakukumpleto. There are times na Matt (Nieto) is out, Don (Trollano) got positive (Covid-19) one time and Kevin (Alas) naman sprained his ankle so kulang kulang kami lagi ngayon lang nabubuo. Things are getting better,” said Lim.
Interestingly, all of the recent victories of Lim came at the expense of some of the veteran and champion coaches of the league like Chot Reyes, Tim Cone, Norman Black. He, hopefully, pulls off another one against Yeng Guiao if the last playoff spot boils down to a do-or-die between their teams.
“Nataon lang siguro, syempre pahumble tayo natapat,” Lim jested.