Rain or Shine triumphs, heads to Pinoy Cup Finals

Sige mag usap muna kayo jan,
ititira ko muna ito

For the record, the San Mig Coffee Mixers did whatever they could to try and salvage a win and extend the series for another night. And though top gun, 2x PBA Most Valuable Player, James Yap had another rough outing (relentlessly being hounded by the Rain or Shine Elastopainters) their other superstar PJ Simon went to work early to give the Mixers the lead in the first half.

Simon looked to be unstoppable, as he kept draining jumper after jumper right at hapless Paul Lee's grill as though the bald-headed reigning PBA Rookie of the Year wasn't there. Marc Pingris also looked like he was up for another big night, jumping all over the place and hauling down monstrous one-handed rebounds over the Elastopainters' frontline. Then there was also Joe DeVance, taking advantage of the mismatch in skillset and scoring time and again against either smaller or slower defenders asked to guard him. Truly, save for Yap going AWOL, everything was clicking for the Mixers. Even when things started to get chippy the Mixers appeared to be well in control, ending the first half with a Yap triple (which, for Mixers fans, was a great sign).

Then came the second half.