Almazan, Painters face Bolts today

Rain or Shine  parades No. 3 overall Draft pick Raymond Almazan when the Elasto Painters gun for a second straight win today against the Meralco Bolts in the PLDT MyDSL PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay.

With Almazan having completed his collegiate commitment with Letran, the Painters will be an even taller team in their 5:45 p.m. clash with the Bolts, who will try to bounce back from an opening day loss to sister squad Talk ‘N Text.

San Mig Coffee and Alaska, teams that also lost their opening day matches, slug it out in the 8 p.m. contest.

The Mixers and the Aces will be coming off blowout losses, with San Mig having practiced just a week before the new season began.

Alaska, on the other hand, looked out of synch against Rain or Shine in Cebu, something that was very uncharacteristic for an organization that thrives on consistency.

The 6-foot-7 Almazan won the NCAA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards while helping the Knights to a second place finish behind San Beda just last Saturday.

Meralco is not that big, though, and the focus of the Rain or Shine defense would obviously have to be on Gary David, the new Bolts’ recruit who showed that he didn’t miss a beat in shooting 28 points in a losing cause against the Tropang Texters.

David, the scoring champ the last two seasons, must get support from an underrated bunch that includes Reynel Hugnatan, Jared Dillinger, Mike Cortez and Cliff Hodge.

In Cebu, the next best scorer was Dillinger with 11 points, and that told heavily on the Bolts.