Rain or Shine bags crucial Game 3 victory over Talk N’ Text

Paul Lee drives to the hoop against Ranidel De Ocampo. PBA Images

Rain or Shine put down Talk N’ Text, 109-97, in a testy outing to take Game 3 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals Sunday evening at Smart-Araneta Coliseum.

The Painters took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series after losing the opener.

Rain or Shine went into a frenetic pace in the second half as it erected a 22-point, 93-71, lead in the fourth after slowly dismantling the stunned Texters with  a 13-2 run in the third.

Painters head coach Yeng Guiao said stopping the Texters’ intense offense was their goal for game three.

“We played fantastic defense tonight, a determination to play good defense,” Guiao said. “We were determined to make it difficult for them to execute their offense.”

He added that Talk N’ Text did not change any of its defensive strategies which left it prone to the Painters’ straight-to-the-basket offense.

“We did not see any adjustments to their defense, so we kept running our offense that we ran in Game 2, it’s been working for us,” Guiao said who will reserve his next offensive strategies until the Texters decide to change their defense.

“We’ll just keep that in the warehouse, adjust our offense based on the kind of defense that they will show in Game 4.”

Thinhs got ugly when Talk N’ Text import Ivan Johnson’s elbow hit Paul Lee straight in the face midway through the third.

Lee lost one of his front teeth and got two of them nudged in different directions.

Guiao lambasted the unfair treatment of the referees when it comes to the physicality of the game, which he said is getting out of hand.

“If you have your top player falling down to the court with an elbow right into his face, and you call it a regular foul, what happens to us is the officials call a flagrant before turning it into a regular foul after the play was reviewed,” Guiao said. “They [referees] did not call a single flagrant on TNT.”

Guiao described the lenient calls toward the rough play as “dangerous.”

“Delikado na.”

Lee eventually returned to the game in the fourth quarter and immediately ran the break and passed to the open Gabe Norwood for a two-handed jam to give the Painters a 107-90 lead.

Wayne Chism “showed his class,” as Guiao said, with 32 points, 15 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks to lead Rain or Shine.

Lee had 17 points while Jericho Cruz and Jeff Chan added a combined 26 points.

Johnson led the Texters with 30 points and 14 boards while Jayson Castro had 20 points.

The scores:

RAIN OR SHINE109 – Chism 32, Lee 17, Cruz Jericho 14, Chan 12, Quinahan 9, Norwood 6, Tiu 6, Belga 6, Almazan 4, Cruz Jervy 2, Tang 1, Ibanes 0, Arana 0.

TALK N’ TEXT 97 – Johnson 30, Castro 20, Fonacier 16, De Ocampo 16, Alas 8, Rosser 5, Washington 2, Carey 0, Williams 0, Aban 0.

Quarters: 32-26, 52-45, 84-65, 109-97