Rampaging E-Painters tackle Gin Kings

RAIN OR Shine shoots for the franchise’s best-ever start today when the rampaging Elasto Painters battle crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Governors’ Cup eliminations at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Game time is 7:30 p.m. with the Painters seeking a fourth straight win that would also enable them to keep top spot.

B-Meg guns for a third consecutive victory earlier at 5:15 p.m. against struggling Meralco.

Rain or Shine, which also posted a 3-0 start during the first conference of Yeng Guiao as coach, has a chance to move possibly within two more wins of an outright playoff berth.

“We’ve prepared very hard for this,” Guiao had told reporters when asked of the key to their great start.

Ginebra, meanwhile, will be coming off an impressive conquest of Meralco in Lapu Lapu City last Saturday, and assistant coach Allan Cadic, who scouted future foes at the Big Dome last Sunday, said they would be tough to beat if they play the way they did against the Bolts.

Cedric Bozeman and Jamelle Cornley, the Ginebra and Rain or Shine imports, respectively, have not shown signs of selfishness and are both willing to take the backseat.

And that would more or less decide the outcome tonight as both squads obviously want their locals to deliver.

Mark Caguioa continues to be the spiritual leader for the Kings, while the Painters are hoping to draw strength from a battery of role players led by Gabe Norwood, Ronjay Buenafe and Beau Belga.

An interesting sidelight is the guessing game on who can stop super Rain or Shine rookie Paul Lee, who has recovered from his Commissioner’s Cup slumber to again act as the heart of the squad.

Meralco is reeling from two straight defeats, none uglier than that loss to the Gin Kings in Lapu-Lapu. Mac Cardona, for several conferences the team’s leading local scorer, has also struggled, dramatizing the B-Boy’s poor form of late.