Painters enter tough homestretch

Rain or Shine has gone through three overtime thrillers thus far, and the Elasto Painters know that the rest of the journey toward a quarterfinal bonus will be as tough.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done if we want to reach the top two,” coach Caloy Garcia said as his Painters enter the homestretch of their elimination round schedule in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup starting with unpredictable Blackwater Friday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I just told the players that we have to come out strong and be the one wanting it more than Blackwater, especially now that they got their first win,” said Garcia as they take the Big Dome floor at 4:30 p.m. looking to regain the solo lead.

“Their morale will be high and they will be playing with nothing to lose,” said Garcia of the Elite, who snapped a seven-game losing streak Wednesday night after an 86-84 win over Magnolia courtesy of Henry Walker’s dunk with 3.4 seconds left.

Hot on a three-game streak, Rain or Shine will also be coming off a win over the Hotshots, but at this point of the elimination round, a loss for anyone in the upper half of the standings could mean the difference between winning a twice-to-beat privilege or not.

Tournament format calls for the top two teams to draw the lightest assignments in the first round of the playoffs, with No. 1 tangling with No. 8 and Nos. 2 and 7 squaring off with the higher-ranked teams needing to win just once to make the Final Four.

Reggie Johnson will have a huge size advantage at the slot for the Painters, who can exploit this to the hilt with Blackwater not having anyone to contain the Rain or Shine behemoth one-on-one.

Garcia and his chargers will still face Phoenix on June 1 and Meralco on June 24 before rounding out their elimination schedule against TNT KaTropa on July 7.

The Painters are tied with idle TNT KaTropa for the lead and are just a full game ahead of fourth-running Meralco, which gets a chance at enhancing its playoff position when it battles Phoenix Petroleum in the 7 p.m. game.

The Bolts are again leaning on import Arinze Onuaku to plug all the holes in the middle. They will be coming off an impressive victory over Barangay Ginebra that put to naught Justin Brownlee’s triple-double effort for the Gin Kings.

“Winning this one will allow us to move closer to our goal of making it to the quarterfinals,” said Phoenix coach Louie Alas.