PAUL Lee is indeed back in a huge way for Rain or Shine.
The 6-foot point guard, out for most of the season because of a left knee injury, was the hero for the second straight game for the Elasto Painters, hitting the marginal jumper at the buzzer for a 105-103 victory last night over the Alaska Aces at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The victory gave the Painters a 2-0 buffer over the Aces in their best-of-seven title series for the Oppo-PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Grabbing a long rebound off a Beau Belga miss from three-point range, Lee—also for the second consecutive game—found himself wide open for the game-winner that moved the Painters within two more wins of just the franchise’s second championship.
“I was lucky that the rebound fell into my hands,” Lee said in Filipino. “And then I knew I still had two seconds to aim. That was a lot of time [for me] to focus on the shot.”
In the series opener last Friday, Lee also hit a wide-open three-pointer in transition with well under a minute left that broke Alaska’s collective backs in a 105-97 victory.
“Paul is playing like their import; he made the plays late,” Alaska’s Alex Compton said. “We talked very much about how every second counts, how to be smarter [in the endgame] and again, we had a [defensive] breakdown.”
Lee scored 13 of his 17 points in the fourth period, including a three-point play off Alaska import Rob Dozier that made it 103-99, time down to 65 seconds.
But Alaska fought back and knotted it all up at 103 with 27.3 ticks to go after two free throws by Calvin Abueva and a jump hook by Dozier, only for the defense to let Lee out of its sight and pay for it dearly.
RAIN or Shine’s Jeff Chan shoots off a tight-guarding Dondon Hontiveros of Alaska in last night’s Game 2 at the Big Dome. AUGUST DELA CRUZ
“Paul is just back to his leadership role in this team,” said Rain or Shine’s Yeng Guiao, who had a lot of locals stepping up to make up for another mediocre offensive night from import Pierre Henderson-Niles.
Jeff Chan shared team scoring honors with Lee with 17, all of them coming in the middle two quarters.
Belga, Jericho Cruz and Jewel Ponferrada shot 14 each to give the Painters a boost and survive Alaska’s much-improved showing.
“They know that they can come back and we also know that,” Guiao said of the Aces. “We have to try harder in Game 3. They (Aces) played a lot better today (compared to Game 1).”
RJ Jazul had 24 points to pace the Aces, who will be—for all intents and purposes—playing for their lives in Wednesday’s Game 3, also at the historic Big Dome floor.
Dozier, after shooting a career-high 41 points on Friday, finished with just 18, with Abueva and Sonny Thoss shooting 14 and Cyrus Baguio winding up with 11.
The scores:
RAIN OR SHINE 105—Chan 17, Lee 17, Belga 14, Cruz 14, Ponferada 14, Henderson-Niles 8, Ahanmisi 6, Quinahan 6, Almazan 3, Ibanes 2, Norwood 2, Tiu 2, Teng.
ALASKA 103—Jazul 24, Dozier 18, Abueva 14, Thoss 14, Baguio 11, Banchero 9, Hontiveros 8, Exciminiano 5, Baclao 0, Eman 0, Dela Cruz 0.
Quarters: 21-26, 49-51, 76-79, 105-103