Mixers move closer to rare Grand Slam

SAN MIG COFFEE import Marqus Blakely gets a shot off Rain or Shine swingman Gabe Norwood. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

TIM CONE still doesn’t want to talk about it, even if San Mig Coffee is now within a win of a coveted Grand Slam.

Using a decisive 12-2 run early in the fourth quarter of a low-scoring game, the Mixers ripped the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 78-69, to move a game away from clinching the  PBA Governors’ Cup championship and completing the rare Triple Crown sweep.

San Mig’s second unit got the job done in just the first five minutes of the fourth quarter as the Mixers turned a 58-59 deficit into a 70-61 lead with 7:10 left which the Elasto Painters never came close to challenging the rest of the way.

With a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series, the Mixers launch the first of their two attempts at just the league’s fifth Grand Slam tomorrow at 8 p.m. also at the Big Dome in Cubao, though Cone remained very careful in counting the chickens before the eggs hatch.

“You can’t talk about it (Grand Slam) until it’s done,” Cone said, moments after the win carved out in front of close to 18,000 loud fans at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “We can’t afford to do that. We have too much respect for this (Rain or Shine) team.”

Rain or Shine lost focus for a fleeting moment after taking that one-point lead—the only time that the Painters were on top—and never recovered.

“I have been telling my guys that this (Rain or Shine) is the mentally strongest team you will play,” Cone continued. “They don’t break and you have to compete with them.”

San Mig forced Rain or Shine to take some pretty low percentage shots in the fourth quarter and the Painters also did not help their own cause by lapsing into a series of errors that resulted in 10 turnover points for the Mixers.

At one point, the Painters turned the ball over five straight times with Ian Sangalang cashing in on the other end for the Mixers, who are seeking to become the first team in 18 years—after Cone’s Alaska in 1996—to pull off a sweep of all three championships in one season.

“We got outworked today,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao. “We need to find ways to get the others involved in offense. They (Mixers) played with a lot more energy. It was just a terrible [case of] mental lapse [in the fourth period].”

Guiao also took a swipe at league chair Mon Segismundo, who advised the mercurial coach to “stop and smell the roses” in the wake of the Painters protest over the drawing of the Draft lottery (See related story on Page A28).

“I think the advice of the chair is good advice,” Guiao said. “But as a leader, you [can] smell the roses [but] you also have to smell the stink.”

The scores:

SAN MIG COFFEE 78—Blakely 17, Sangalang 13, Devance 10, Simon 10, Pingris 7, Yap 7, Barroca 6, Reavis 6, Melton 2, Maliksi 0.

RAIN OR SHINE 69—Reid 31, Belga 8, Cruz 6, Arana 6, Almazan 4, Chan 4, Tiu 3, Ibanes 2, Lee 2, Norwood 2, Rodriguez 1, Tang 0, Nuyles 0.

Quarters: 17-14, 39-30, 58-55, 78-69