Gabe and Jeff resurface; RoS wins anew

After an abysmal start to the Commissioner's Cup eliminations, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters look like they're back on track, winning yet another game by their trademark physical (borderline thug-like) defense and streaky outside shooting.

Import Duke Crews remains to be the shortest import of the lot, but boy does this monster fight for every inch on the hard court. The coaching staff also seem to have made the correct adjustments, taking the ball out of Crews' hands and spreading the offense out and putting the pressure on its locals to deliver.

Tonight, Gabe Norwood and Jeffrei Chan did just that.


In a throwback game reminiscent of his early years with Happee Toothpaste (yes, we had to dig that far back to come up with a similar performance), Norwood was doing everything on the floor for RoS. Score, pass, rebound-- hell, the guy was even asking for the ball in the post (fortunately though, his teammates knew better and resisted dumping it to him at the block-- no one would ever believe you if you claimed that Norwood can post anyone up tall or short).

Chan was also looking for his shots tonight, a far cry from their first four games into the conference where he just stood idly by at the sidelines waiting for gimmes. The guy was blistering hot again tonight, scoring 19 points on 5/10 shooting from deep, you'd think Allan Caidic resigned from his post with Ginebra, went on a Likas Papaya bleaching spree and suited up for RoS coach Yeng Guiao.

Now that we're at it, it's a travesty that moniker-happy/ Quinito Henson in a smaller, cuter, pint-sized package Mico Halili hasn't come up with one for Chan.

So, KKS, in homage to Allan "Triggerman" Caidic and Pido "Fireman" Jarencio, both legendary shooters of their generation, officially christens Chan as the KKS Bomberman. Granted, it's not a moniker that Chan can go on using when he's at the airport or any high profile public places, but you get the drift.

Back to the game, and how coach Yeng and co. have adjusted and learned from the early losses.

1. TY Tang is playing point guard
Said it before, will say it again, Tang is arguably the most solid yet under rated point guard in the PBA. He doesn't put up the numbers like the Castros, Tenorios and Cabagnots. Or shoot the ball as well as former understudy JVee Casio. But everything else you want from a PG, Tang does them all well. Shoot jumpers? Check. Play hard-nosed defense? Check. Run? Check. Slow down? Check. Now that he seems to be back into coach Yeng's graces, Tang is making the most of it and has effectively steered the RoS ship back into playoff contention.

2. Gabe Norwood is back to point-forward instead of full time point guard
Norwood belongs at the small forward position, doing what he does best- freelancing. This way, he can make up for his shooting woes with his energy, speed and athleticism at a position wherein only about three or four other guys in the whole PBA is at par with him (Santos, Dillinger and Ababou).

3. Jireh Ybanes is playing
Did you see the former UP Fighting Maroon lock down Big Game James tonight? We did. And that's defense you can't teach.

4. Coach Yeng has pulled the reins on rookie Paul Lee
Coach Yeng usually rides his stars regardless of the situation or slumps. Yes, he chose Paul Lee to play in the end game of tonight's match, but Paul Lee sat down longer than he usually does the whole evening. This conference, the rookie out of Tondo has clearly hit a wall and has struggled to fit his game around his import Duke Crews who tends to dominate the offensive sets. Tonight, Paul Lee helped his team by sitting down in favor of Tang and a suddenly more aggressive Norwood. KKS says, until he gets his mojo back, then Lee should just voluntarily take a seat and give more time to Tang at PG and Ybanes at SG.

Yes, we will always refer to Paul Lee as Paul Lee. Not just Lee. It's his official KKS moniker: Paul Lee. End of story.

5. Blue collar Duke Crews > high scorer Duke Crews
And finally, Duke Crews has transitioned from trying to do everything by himself to just concentrating on getting the ball and finding his teammates first before calling his own number. He forced a lot of the action tonight (which almost cost his team a bit), but anytime you're undersized import is working his ass off-- you'll just take the negatives with the positives and roll with the punches. Fortunately for RoS, Crews' sacrifice on scoring opened the gates for his teammates and gave them the queue to start putting up shots (and making them). If Crews can patrol the boards like he did tonight, then RoS could very well crash the Commish Cup playoffs after being left for dead in days.