E-PAINTERS, ENERGY COLLIDE
Both the recipients of recent blowout losses, Rain or Shine and Barako Bull clash Friday to shake off the funk in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
While the ROS Elasto Painters and the BB Energy are out to redeem themselves from the shellacking, the two teams are nonetheless separated by their contrasting motivations when they meet at 4:15 p.m.
Rain or Shine eyes solo fifth place behind unbeaten Alaska (4-0) and three-way second placers Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, San Miguel Beer and Meralco (3-1) as it seeks to disengage from a four-way jam with Talk ‘N Text, NLEX and Globalport on 2-2 slates. Winless Barako Bull fights for survival meantime.
ROS is coming off a 99-76 blowout loss to TNT on Nov. 2, while the Energy are looking to break into the win column after dropping their most recent game to San Miguel Beer, 103-89.
Barako Bull is at 11th place just above 0-4 Blackwater Elite.
The Energy are due for a big game where everything comes together for the team of interim coach Koy Banal and Rain or Shine would do everything it could to reschedule that breakout win.
Little can be gleaned by way of optimism however from the manner both teams were blown off the court the last time out.
Despite the presence of their key players, the E-Painters were routed by a team missing star point guard Jimmy Alapag. They clanged 41 of their 66 field goal attempts, including 9 of 25 from beyond the 3-point arc, and were pounded under the boards, 60-30.
Defensively ROS was also atrocious, allowing five TNT players to tally double figures, two of them, including Ranidel de Ocampo who had a game-high 20 points, coming off the bench.
Barako Bull, meanwhile, kept things interesting for three quarters before folding in the final 12 minutes against the Beermen, getting outscored, 33-21. Arwind Santos led SMB with 27 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, while Marcio Lassiter added 20 with three triples and June Mar Fajardo 18 points with 11 rebounds.
Still, SMB coach Leo Austria paid tribute to Banal for coming up with a game plan that threw in disarray all of the Beermen’s scouting report.
“Coach Koy did a good job of giving his team a completely different outlook,” said Austria, who needed three quarters to unravel the Energy’s mystery, solving the riddle finally in the fourth quarter.
But while Austria may have been deceived momentarily by Barako Bull’s restructured offense, it remains to be seen whether the Energy will have the same effect on Rain or Shine and its mercurial coach Yeng Guiao, himself a master of maximizing his team’s strength and exposing the opponent’s flaws and weaknesses. (WJRHT)
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