PBACC The Semifinals: Rain or Shine vs Meralco

Powerade Pilipinas reunion, sort of
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

While the other series will be a beautiful case of high-caliber basketball, this one between the Rain or Shine Elastopainters and Meralco Bolts will be a dog fight.

Not because they are not as well-coached as Purefoods and Talk'n'Text, no, but because both teams run a blue collar, smash mouth kind of basketball that is often wild and woozy (yet highly entertaining, specially when Beau Belga forgets his manners or Gary David waxes hot from down town).

But you know what? If they play their cards right, whoever wins this series will most likely be fresher come the PBA Finals since you just know that the other series will take its toll at some point on either Purefoods or TNT not just physically, but mentally.

As long as the Elastopainters/ Bolts can make this series a short one, of course.


The Elastopainters are humming. Before, the team won more because Lee was on fire, or Chan was making his shots, or because of the import or some hugot from the bench. They were winning games, but it was more like wins that came out of nowhere, with some unsung hero.

Nowadays?

We can expect Lee, Chan and import Wayne Chism to post their usual superstar numbers. Not one at a time, but all three together. We can expect that their bigs will shoot and knock down threes at some point in the game-- Belga, JR Quinahan and or Raymond Almazan. We know that one of those interchangeable guards- Ryan Arana, Chris Tiu, Jericho Cruz, TY Tang and or Jonathan Uyloan will score and combine

Basically, the Elastopainters are no longer the inconsistent bunch we've grown accustomed to.

On the flip side, there's Coach Norman Black and his college-feel like Bolts.

We mean that in a good way.

The Bolts play with a lot of heart and hustle, anchored by import Josh Davis and Cliff Hodge. But then there's Sean Anthony as well providing whatever is needed to win. All three guys mentioned in that last sentence are a perfect fit to resident sniper Gary David's game, if only because he can focus on shooting while they all switch and cover for him defensively.

Jared Dillinger being out for the rest of the conference is going to be huge, as it messes with Coach Black's rotation of interchangeable parts.

But the real catalyst for the Bolts' current success, is Mike Cortez.

Where was this team with all those guys, but minus the Cool Cat?

Yeah, middle-of-the-pack but not really a contender.

Paul Lee vs Mike Cortez is going to decide this series for the Bolts. Lee is basically the best local this conference behind only Jayson Castro, so Cortez will have his hands full. Cortez doesn't have to stop Lee (who can?), he only needs to be efficient on the other side and orchestrate against Lee (which is a tall order).

Once it goes down to an Uyloan vs Jai Reyes match-up, we're just going to go YOLO bat sh*t crazy from where we're watching.

Fearless forecast: Elastopainters to win, but not before a near-melee breaks out involving Belga and Hodge