Rain or Shine goes for title

YENG Guiao finally said something nice about B-Meg, and it came at a time when his Rain or Shine squad seemed poised to finishing off the fancied Llamados.

Guiao has tweaked the psyche of his Elasto Painters in all the right ways in the first four games of the best-of-seven series for the PBA Governors’ Cup, and now that they have a commanding 3-1 lead, he was talking of being cautious for the first time.

The firebrand coach has so far stayed on course after boldly declaring that they would still win the series even with eventual Rookie of the Year Paul Lee out of the lineup.

And lest his Elasto Painters fall into a state of complacency because of his erstwhile super-confident stand and a 3-1 lead, Guiao backtracked a bit to make sure that his wards are in the right frame of mind for the potential clincher at 6:45 p.m. today at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“We got some breathing room, but it is by no means done,” Guiao said after a 94-89 Game 4 victory Sunday night that moved the Painters within a whisker of a breakthrough pro championship.

“This is a vulnerable moment for us because we might think it’s over but it’s not,” Guiao continued. “When you’re playing B-Meg, anything can change. They can be hard to stop when they find their bearings.”

Even B-Meg counterpart Tim Cone was surprised when informed of Guiao’s statement.

“That’s the first time Yeng (Guiao) said something nice about us,” Cone said as his highly favored squad tries to dodge the first of three killer bullets.

“It takes four (victories) to win (a series),” Cone added. “They have to go out and win Game 5. For us, we don’t have a future after Game 5, they (Painters) do. We have to find a way to put pressure on them.”

Only one team in the first 36 years of the league, Robert Jaworski’s charismatic Ginebra San Miguel in the 1991 First Conference Finals, was able to erase a 1-3 deficit and win a best-of-seven championship series, doing it against Shell.

Jamelle Cornley has been great for the Painters, while locals Jeff Chan, Ronjay Buenafe, Beau Belga and Gabe Norwood have stepped up to become the frontrunners for the Cinnabon-PBA Press Corps Finals MVP.

Cone has failed to solve Cornley’s dominance and the consistent outside sniping of the Painters, with Chan leading the way and Norwood coming up with big triples in the last two Rain or Shine victories.

Meanwhile, the Flagrant Foul Penalty 1 assessed on Marc Pingris in the fourth quarter of Game 4 on Ryan Arana has been upgraded to Penalty 2. He escaped suspension but drew an automatic P20,000 fine.