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Curtis Chapman (with ball) and the Hotshots need two more victories against the Bolts to survive the quarterfinals. —MARLO CUETO
Magnolia is entering the PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals with a huge wave of confidence.
Just ask coach LA Tenorio, who steered the Hotshots to the fifth seed for the quarterfinals.
“The way we’re playing right now, I have really high confidence in my players and my team. They have the confidence and the way they play, they have that sense of urgency that this is the playoffs,” he said.
He has reason to be optimistic.
After beating the Meralco Bolts at Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday, Magnolia will enter the playoffs riding the momentum of a three-game winning streak, and a showdown against a familiar foe will give Tenorio some sort of a gauge as he navigates the early part of his coaching career.
“I’m really excited for this coming playoffs because we’ll see where this team really is,” the former playmaker said.
‘Learned a lot’
Meralco will hold a twice-to-beat edge in their quarterfinal showdown after finishing the elimination round with the No. 4 seed.
That means to advance, the Hotshots will need to beat the Bolts three straight times.
“We won once already, so we just need to do it two more times,” Tenorio said.
Magnolia made it to the quarterfinals of the Philippine Cup too, and they faced TNT there, also needing to win two straight. And while the Hotshots failed in their bid there, Tenorio is hoping to change his team’s fate this time.
“We learned a lot from that,” Tenorio said, referring to last conference’s quarterfinals heartbreak. “I think that our failure in the last conference made us learn a lot. But it’s a completely different situation right now we have some new guys, plus we have our import.”
Import Clint Chapman has certainly helped the Hotshots steady themselves after a rocky start.
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And Tenorio hopes Chapman can bring continued success for his squad, starting in Wednesday’s quarterfinal opener at 7:30 p.m. at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
