Painters eye finals spot Tuesday

TALK ‘N Text spitfire Jayson Castro lays it up off Purefoods’ Peter Jun Simon in last night’s still unfinished Game 2 at the Big Dome. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

WITH its huge edge in manpower and experience, Rain or Shine guns for a sweep of a beleaguered Meralco side Tuesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao for a place in the title series of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Game time is 7 p.m. with the Elasto Painters hoping to stay unbeaten in the  playoffs and wrap up the best-of-five Final Four series.

Rain or Shine has been a picture of consistency, and a win tonight would put the Painters in a title series for the second time in three conferences, and the third in the last five after finishing second to Grand Slam champion San Mig Coffee in the Philippine and Governors’ Cups last season.

“We will put all our energy into (the) Tuesday (game),” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao after a 92-82 victory gave them a 2-0 lead on Sunday night. “I think that’s our best chance to close them (Bolts) out.”

The Painters won Game 1, 99-86, but their average winning margin of close to 12 points doesn’t really show how hard the Bolts have been fighting.

In the series opener, Meralco engaged the Painters in a nip-and-tuck game only to lose steam in the fourth quarter.

On Sunday night, Meralco posted leads of as large as 14 points in the first half only to flounder when the Painters connected with impunity from beyond the three-point line in the final two quarters.

“We won the gamble when we made our outside shots,” Guiao said after Game 2 where his Painters canned 19-of-38 attempts from three-point distance with Paul Lee accounting for five.

Meralco will try to become just the fourth team in league history to overcome a 0-2 deficit, but the Bolts would have to do it against one of the pretournament favorites who have all the momentum it needs going into tonight’s game.

There have been 44 teams before Rain or Shine that took 2-0 leads in a best-of-five series and only three didn’t complete the job.

The last team to pull off the feat was Barangay Ginebra in 2010 when Talk ‘N Text walked out of Game 3 of their Philippine Cup quarterfinal series.

Meralco lost Game 2 after doubling up on Rain or Shine import Wayne Chism the whole night only to see the Painters catch fire from beyond the arc.

And should Meralco coach Norman Black not call for a double team tonight, he would risk Chism coming to life offensively. The Rain or Shine import has been held to an average of under 15 points in the first two games after coming into the series norming more than 33 a game.