Rain or Shine’s Eduard Daquioag. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Raymond Almazan missed one hell of a Rain or Shine party on Wednesday night.
Blame that on a spat with coach Caloy Garcia, who didn’t find the need for his services in a 120-99 rout of Phoenix Petroleum that had the Elasto Painters bouncing back in style in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
“We had a misunderstanding,” Garcia said of Almazan, who missed two practices taking things personally when the Rain or Shine coach expressed his displeasure on the 6-foot-8 center’s performance in a loss to GlobalPort last week.
“Nagtampo,” Garcia added. “But things are good now. We’re good now and he should be suiting up (in our next game on Saturday) because he already showed up in our last practice.”
Later in the evening, TNT KaTropa took the floor and rallied from 10 points down in the first half to prevail, 92-83, over Blackwater.
All four teams in Wednesday’s doubleheader ended up with 2-2 records.
TNT remains the only team that Blackwater hasn’t defeated, extending the streak to 10 games after Kelly Williams, who rode a habal-habal from C-5, arrived late and energized the Texters in the second half.
RR Pogoy fired 24 points and Jason Castro 17 for TNT while JP Erram scored 20 to lead the Elite, who, like the Fuel Masters, saw a two-game win run come to an abrupt halt.
Even without Almazan and another star in Jericho Cruz, the Painters still ran roughshod over a formidable Phoenix crew that went into this game with a lot of momentum.
And this was the reason why Rain or Shine’s previous form puzzled Garcia.
“That’s not the (Rain or Shine) team that I know,” Garcia said after defeats to Blackwater and GlobalPort.