NLEX Road Warriors import DeQuan Jones isn’t dwelling on his team’s shock 114-109 loss to the Terrafirma Dyip on Friday. He is, however, keeping an eye on how NLEX responds to it.
“Losing is a part of it. It’s a part of it. But what’s most important is how you lose,” Jones told reporters after the game. “It happens, but we’re more so focused on what we’re doing and the identity that we want to have moving forward.”
For Jones, who had a relatively quiet night with just 19 points and 5 rebounds, the loss to Terrafirma could be a great learning experience for the Road Warriors—that is, if they keep the right mindset.
“It’s one of those losses that you learn from, you experience it early, and depending on the mindset, it sets the precedent moving forward into the rest of the season,” he pointed out.
NLEX Looking to Regroup
The Road Warriors, with new coach Jimmy Alapag bringing over a new vibe, started the PBA Governors’ Cup like a house on fire, piling up six consecutive wins and looking like the next big thing in the league. In each of NLEX’s first six wins, in fact, Jones and company built double-digit leads, including cushions of 15 or more in the first five.
But the cracks seemingly showed in NLEX’s tight 88-83 win over the undermanned TNT Tropang 5G, who clamped down on the Road Warriors’ explosive offense. Then, against Terrafirma, the bubble broke, with the Dyip taking control in stretches before finishing the job with a superb endgame.
Now, the league and fans alike will see how Alapag and company respond to their first true taste of adversity. And they will have to prove it against the team that nearly beat them first in TNT.
NLEX and TNT will face off again later tonight at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
