Rain or Shine might have lost the series opener in its semis rematch against TNT but head coach Yeng Guiao can see what difference Caelan Tiongson and Deon Thompson could make for the team.

The Elasto Painters met the Tropang Giga in the semifinals last conference with Tiongson out with a calf injury and with a much smaller import in Aaron Fuller. 

It ended in a 4-1 victory for TNT – something that Guiao is hopeful that won’t happen again with the two around.

“Nararamdaman ko naman yung difference ng series na ito sa past series namin,” said Guiao.

“Caelan is a really a big factor especially on defense. I think we were able to limit RHJ’s percentage to about 29 percent. That kind of efficiency is proof of our defense of him. Also, Deon is a bigger threat both inside and outside than Aaron was,” explained the veteran coach.

The two did make their presence felt with Tiongson limiting Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to 29.6 percent shooting from the field including a 0-of-7 clip from the three-point territory. 

Thompson, on the other hand, dropped 29 points to go with 16 rebounds.

“With those two factors tingin ko mas realistic yung chance namin sa series na ito,” Guiao commented.

However, as encouraging the signs are, the ball is still on Rain or Shine’ court and it needs to make the adjustments particularly on the defensive end if it wishes to tie the series.

“The problem now is kung paano icontest and limit yung three point shooting nila, yung tira nila sa labas. (Calvin) Oftana, (RR) Pogoy and Jayson (Castro) will always be a problem in terms of you can't really give them any small window, pag maliit na bintana sa kanila kaya talaaga nilang maconvert yng three points nila,” said Guiao.

“It’s a sorry loss for us but we still feel good about how we played tonight maganda lang talaga yung three point shooting  percentage nila but inspite of that it was really a one possession game all the way,” he added.

“We are disappointed but we feel we have a realistic chance of getting back in the series.”