SOME THOUGHTS ON THE MERALCO-RAIN OR SHINE MATCH

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For the Meralco Bolts, this match-up with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters is a now-or-never series. Now in their fourth season, the Bolts are hoping to make a splash in these playoffs.

In last season’s Governors’ Cup, the Bolts finished third. However, in the All-Filipino tournament that is the Philippine Cup, Meralco dropped with a sickening thud all the way to ninth spot with a 5-9 record.

This Commissioner’s Cup, true to the thoughts of head coach Ryan Gregorio, the Bolts have stayed in the middle of the pack that was good for fifth place in the team standings with a 5-4 record. “We would have wanted to finish the elimination round higher but you take what there is. At least we aren’t down there. With the confidence we have gained from tough matches, we can only move up.”

And true enough, the Bolts defeated ROS 94-91 in Game 1 of their best-of-three quarterfinals series.

The Bolts won with what Gregorio says are those hustle points that along with heart are not totally reflected in the stat sheet.

“There are the quantifiable stats such as offensive rebounds – we beat ROS on the offensive glass 16-12; we had more second chance points 12-6, and steals 6-2,” noted Gregorio. “But what we should note was the willingness of players like Gary David and Jared Dillinger to repeatedly attack the inside. They play with a lot of energy and that helped us.”

“It isn’t only that,” the fourth-year Meralco coach pointed out. “It was our defense. Paul Lee was causing us problems but we stopped him in the end. The way Cliff Hodge recovered to bother Lee’s shot at the end was huge. Even Darnell Jackson’s shot to ice the match was big.”

Jackson. I have to admit that I don’t think those shots he’s been taking at the end look like the form of noted closers like Mark Caguioa, Alex Cabagnot, and James Yap to name a few but the man has confidence. He’s been stroking it. And he’s been talking some (the San Mig Coffee Mixers and the Barako Bull Energy kind of experienced that). Good that he can back it up now. Let’s see if he can help finish off this quarterfinals series.

And speaking of scoring, the Elasto Painters saw four players score in double digits – Wayne Chism, Paul Lee, Ryan Araña, and Chris Tiu. But sorely missing were the points of Beau Belga who laid a big fat egg in 24 minutes of play. An off night for the big man, Belga took only five attempts and missed every one of them although he chalked up four assists.

Rain or Shine has blown hot and cold this conference. Lee has been one of their bright spots in this difficult conference that has seen Yeng Guiao’s charges finish with an identical 5-4 record with Meralco. Lee was recently feted by the Press Corps as the Player for the Week of April 14-20 for his recent performances, beating out San Miguel forward Arwind Santos and Meralco’s Dillinger for the honor.

The depth and talent of Rain or Shine is well known but sometimes I wonder how some players will do with extended minutes. Clearly, many of their players would shine – pardon the pun — with extended minutes as some take a while to get their game going. I think that outside of their regular scorers like Belga, Jeff Chan, Araña, and JR Quiñahan, other players like Raymond Almazan and Alex Nuyles are just waiting in the wings to carry a heavier load.

Looking forward to Game Two.

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