Birthday boy Paul Lee leads Rain or Shine over Purefoods

MANILA, Philippines—Paul Lee gave himself a present on his 26th birthday on Saturday night.

Lee scored 18 points to lead Rain or Shine over defending Commissioner’s Cup champion Purefoods Star, 78-71, at the Dipolog Sports Center in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.

The 6-foot Lee also had eight rebounds for the Elasto Painters, who improved to 3-2 after a loss to Meralco in their previous outing.

Sharpshooting swingman Jeff Chan sprained his ankle in the third quarter but showed no effects of the injury in the fourth period to finish with 12 points for the Painters.

Beau Belga added 10, including an off-the-glass 3-pointer to beat the shot clock and put the game away, 78-69, with only 1:26 left.

Daniel Orton had a game-high 23 points for Purefoods, which was dealt its first loss after starting the conference at 4-0, while his counterpart Rick Jackson only had 12 points.

The loss by the Hotshots left the Bolts as the only unbeaten team in the league.

There was no love lost between the two rivals, even on Valentine’s Day.

Up by seven, 78-71, with only 12.3 seconds left, Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao called a timeout to map out one final play for quotient purposes. Guiao called a second timeout that appeared to irate Purefoods coach Tim Cone.

Cone also called burned his final two timeouts and did not huddle his players just to seemingly get back at Guiao.

Lee missed a triple and so did the Hotshots at the end as time ran out. Both champion coaches though, shook hands after at center court.

Two-time MVP James Yap, who turns 33 on Sunday, got hurt in the first quarter and didn’t look like himself after he was fielded back in the third quarter. Yap couldn’t do anything to help Purefoods as Rain or Shine gained control of the game in the fourth quarter as he sat on the bench the entire period.