Painters eye to sweep Beermen

Game Thursday (Philsports Arena)

7 p.m. – Rain or Shine vs San Miguel Beer

MANILA, Philippines – Rain or Shine, on a hot rampage from the elimination round, looks to sweep its way to the Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals, going for the jugular against a beleaguered San Miguel Beer side in their Final Four matchup Thursday night at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

A victory by the Elasto Painters in the 7 p.m. match will end San Miguel’s quest for a “treble” and give Rain or Shine another shot at the crown that the ball club came close to winning last season – oh so close.

Odds are now heavily stacked on Rain or Shine’s side after back-to-back come-from-behind victories that stretched the E-Painters’ streak to seven games from the elims.

For the record, 43 of 46 teams that have taken a 2-0 lead in a PBA best-of-five series went on to win – 26 via a sweep. The only three teams that were able to survive from that hole were Crispa in the 1975 Third Conference Finals, Purefoods in the 1990 Third Conference Finals and Ginebra in the 2010 Philippine Cup quarterfinals.

The Beermen are likely to use their record fightback from a 0-3 deficit in the last Philippine Cup Finals as a rallying point.

But, first, they have to sit down and iron out any difference they have had following their Game Two defeat.

Tyler Wilkerson, apparently in utter frustration, walked out of the team’s post-game huddle. “Take me back to America. I want to go home,” he was overheard as saying.

Then except for Alex Cabagnot, no one else from the team granted interview to the media.

San Miguel’s quest for a third straight championship is now in jeopardy after squandering comfortable leads in Games One and Two.

A big missing link for SMB is Marcio Lassiter – the team’s No. 1 outside threat who struggled with a horrendous 2-of-20 clip in the first two games of the semis.

Arwind Santos’ numbers have also dropped down – not a surprise considering his playing minutes were significantly reduced.

With SMB coach Leo Austria playing a short rotation, the E-Painters have one lethal game plan – to run, run and run.

And ROS has been successful, having run to the ground San Miguel in each of the first two games. The E Painters took Game One at 98-94 and Game Two at 98-96.

Pierre Henderson-Niles is out there to defend and get the rebounds. His teammates do the tricks of pushing the ball and running the breaks as much as they can.

“He knows his role and he’s doing his job well,” said ROS assistant coach Caloy Garcia of Niles, with whom the team has yet to lose in five games.

In escaping with the win Tuesday night, the E-Painters have got three cracks at booking a return stint in the Commissioner’s Cup Finals. They yielded the 2015 championship in losing a Game Seven double-overtime grind versus the TNT Texters.