SMB, Rain or Shine in crucial tussle for playoff placing
San Miguel Beer pursues its Top Four aspiration while Rain or Shine fights for its Top Eight bid as they meet in a vital Petron Blaze Saturday Special at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
The Beermen chase a seventh win in 10 games while the Elasto Painters shoot for a fifth triumph against five losses in a crucial match at 5:15 p.m.
Barely in the Top Eight with two games left in the elims, the E-Painters gamble on another import change, bringing in Josh Dollard to take over from Jason Forte.
Dollard made good impression in his stint with the Barako Bull Energy in the 2014 PBA Commissioner’s Cup but hasn’t played competitive games since December coming from an injury.
If he can be in his old form, he may be able to provide the boost the E-Painters badly need at this time. He led the league in scoring and wound up fifth in rebounding during his stint with Barako Bull in a tourney with a 6-foot-9 height cap for imports.
In his PBA re-measurement Thursday, Dollard was measured at 6-foot-4 14/16.
Rain or Shine would surely need his inside game facing San Miguel Beer and its prized behemoth June Mar Fajardo.
Pierre Henderson Niles did the job as the Elasto Painters pulled the rug from under the Beermen in their semifinal showdown in the last Commissioner’s Cup.
The E-Painters split two games with Forte as their import, so did the Beermen with import sub Mike Singletary.
Original import AZ Reid has flown home. There’s no official word whether he’s still coming back.
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