REIGNING Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup champion Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters will not go quietly into the night.
Threatened with the possibility of early elimination in the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup they displayed the heart of champions with a decisive 103-88 rout of the undermanned Mahindra Enforcer at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Friday.
The victory pushed Rain Or Shine (4 wins, 4 losses) into a tie at sixth place with the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters (4-4).
Leading the standings are TNT Ka Tropa (7-1), Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (6-2), San Miguel Beermen (6-2), Mahindra (6-3) and the Meralco Bolts (5-4).
The other teams include the Alaska Aces (3-5), the GlobalPort Batang Pier (3-5), the NLEX Road Warriors (3-5), the Blackwater Elite (1-7) and the Star Hotshots (1-7).
Rain Or Shine’s remaining games will be against: NLEX at 4:30 p.m., today, Sunday, September 4 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo; San Miguel Beer, 5:15 p.m., Saturday, September 10, Ynares Center Antipolo; and Star, 7 p.m., Friday, September 16, Mall of Asia Arena.
With the victory they’ve improved their chance of making the top eight and advance to the quarterfinals.
The Elasto Painters relied on bruisers Beau Belga, JR Quiñahan and long-limbed Raymond Almazan to contain Mahindra’s prolific import James White who was limited to 16 points.
White was also boxed out and pushed away from his comfortable rebounding position on defense. This limited Mahindra’s transition game which relied heavily on White’s defensive rebounds that usually resulted into Mahindra fastbreak attempts.
White’s disruptive, shot-blocking was also neutralized by Rain Or Shine’s “bombs away” outside shooting which resulted in six Elasto Painters tallying double digit scores.
Almazan had 14 points, Belga with 13, Jericho Cruz had 13, Paul Lee tallied 12, Jeff Chan had 10 points and import Jason Forte likewise tallied 10 markers.
The Elasto Painters led early with 18 points, relaxed too son and found that lead reduced to three points, but recovered in time to tally the victory pulling away.
It didn’t even matter that new import Forte played less than 17 minutes. The All-Filipino crew by the Elasto Painters had the game well in hand.
“We had to do most of the work all-Filipino. Our import Jason Forte had only one practice with us. He came in early morning Thursday and practiced with us at 10 a.m. Obviously, we can’t expect too much from him,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao in the post-game interview.
“We’ll have the same problem Sunday [today] against NLEX. Jason will be able to practice with us just once before that game. So we’ll have to do it all-Filipino again. Whatever he can contribute will be bonus for us again.”
Mahindra was not at full strength. Local top scorer Niño Canaleta was out because he had to undergo an appendectomy on Thursday. Canaleta averaged 12.6 points and 3.4 rebounds.
Mahindra put up a tough stand even without Canaleta. They were in the thick of the fight until a late fourth quarter collapse.
White drove strong to the hoop to score to cut the Rain Or Shine lead to just three points, 77-74, early in the fourth. Lee then drained two free throws to start a 13-0 Rain Or Shine surge that broke the game wide open as the Elasto Painters led, 90-74, with a little over six minutes to play.
Jewel Ponferada scored on a followup; Cruz converted a layup; Belga drilled a triple and Almazan scored back-to-back baskets from just underneath the goal as Rain Or Shine erected a fat 16-point advantage, 90-74.
Mahindra countered with its own 5-0 run to cut the lead to 11 points, 90-79, with five minutes left to play. But Almazan started another 9-0 Rain Or Shine blast which pushed the Elasto Painters to a 20-points advantage, 99-79, with a little over two minutes left to play.
With that starters of both teams went out of the game as Mahindra mentor Chris Gavina and Rain Or Shine coach Yeng Guiao emptied their respective benches.
The Elasto Painters, hobbled with a good import who was a bad fit to their team, had struggled early this conference.
Import Dior Lowhorn was a potent inside scorer and an efficient rebounder. But he was slow-footed and did not have the range to score from outside and stuck out like a sore thumb in Rain Or Shine’s free-flowing offense.
The quick-stepping, high-leaping Forte, who can score from all the way out to three-point distance, will be a better fit and should take the Elasto Painters deep into the playoffs.