MANILA, Philippines – The Rain or Shine Elasto Painters are looking for ways to fix their issues in crunch time as both of their losses in the 2016-17 PBA Philippine Cup have come after giving up late runs to their opponents.

In their first loss of the conference to Ginebra last December 4, the Elasto Painters surrendered an 11-0 run to the Gin Kings that turned a 74-70 advantage into an 81-74 loss.

Against Star last Sunday, Rain or Shine was outscored 15-3 in the final three minutes by the Paul Lee-led Hotshots, and squandered a double-digit third-quarter lead in a 91-99 setback.

"Our mistakes against Ginebra just happened again today," said Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia. "We committed four turnovers in the last three minutes, which cost us a lot, kasi karamihan ng turnovers na 'yun, fastbreak points sa kabila."

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Garcia noted that their second unit was not able to sustain the defensive pressure applied by their starters, which allowed Star to rally from the fourth-quarter deficit.

"I was expecting more energy (from our second unit), and to continue the defense that we were applying. But the second group, in the second half, didn't play defense that much. That's why ang bilis ng habol," he explained.

A veteran team with plenty of championship experience, the Elasto Painters are all concerned about their fourth-quarter issues and are determined to fix them early in the conference.

"We should have learned our lesson against Ginebra, when we had a lead and lost it," Gabe Norwood pointed out. "Even in the game against Mahindra (a 105-83 win), we won big, but we still got beat by 20 in the fourth quarter."

"We got to be better in fourth quarters, and hopefully, we don't put ourselves in that situation on Friday (against NLEX)," he added.

Big man Raymond Almazan said their loss to Star should be another lesson. "Para itong pagkatalo namin sa Ginebra – last six minutes, parang doon kami bumibigay," he noted.

"Maraming lapses, turnovers, 'yun lang siguro," he added. 'We were up by 10, akala namin, lalayo na kami. Talagang walang mahinang team sa PBA."

Rookie Mike Tolomia does see a bright side to their recent setback.

"Mas mabuti nang nangyayari itong mga ganitong games (ngayon), kaysa sa playoffs pa mangyari, kung makapasok kami," he said.

"Sabi ni coach, gamitin lang namin ito as a learning experience, para 'di na maulit," he added. "Sabi niya sa amin, sana 'di maulit sa susunod na games."

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