MANILA: Rain or Shine has found the import it has been looking for.
Sadly for Barangay Ginebra, it seems that the one it has keeps falling short despite good numbers.
The Elasto Painters last night rolled to their second straight win, a 107-93 beating of the Gin Kings, the defending champions’ third straight loss which put them near the bottom of the Fiesta Cup standings at the Araneta Coliseum.
“It only goes to show that Jai (Lewis) is the missing link,” Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia told scribes last night shortly after the victory, which sealed the best start in franchise history.
“What he does for the team is that he gets all the locals involved,” added Garcia, who will turn 34 today like another winning coach last night, Burger King mentor Yeng Guiao. “Malaking bagay talaga siya para sa amin.”
And whether or not Garcia was saying that in a figurative way was anybody’s guess. But the literal truth to it is that Lewis is really a big man and one of the most imposing presences this league has seen in the shaded lane in ages.
Built like a defensive lineman, Lewis scored 16 points, had 17 rebounds, four assists and three blocks, helping the Painters peel away from the Kings early on the way to dealing Ginebra another black eye.
Solomon Mercado paced the Painters with 18 points and seven assists and Rob Wainwright scored all 16 of his markers in the second half, a lot of his shots scuttling numerous Ginebra comebacks.
Rain or Shine opened up with a 10-0 blast and was never headed, taking the half sitting on a 57-37 cushion before the Kings threatened in the fourth quarter by coming in to within seven points.
But it was clear that momentum was already on the side of the Painters, and with Lewis proving to be a steadying presence, Rain or Shine tied idle Sta. Lucia in second spot at 3-1, just half-a-game behind San Miguel’s 4-0 slate.
Rod Nealy led Ginebra with 32 points and 11 rebounds, but he was effectively silenced in the second period when the Painters broke away, shooting just two points.
Ginebra is continuing to miss gunslinger Mark Caguioa, whom coach Jong Uichico expects to be back from rehab treatment in the United States at the middle of next month at the soonest.
Compounding matters for the Kings was the absence of Sunday Salvacion, the team’s leading local scorer with an average of 19.3 points a contest. Salvacion pulled a left calf muscle in practice on Monday.
Guiao, meanwhile, turns 50 today, and he celebrated his birthday in a huge way by guiding his Titans to a 123-110 mangling of former team Barako Bull in the first game.
“I’m just trying to treat this as another game that we have to play without the emotions that go with having coached the other team for nine years,” Guiao explained after getting 22 points and nine rebounds from national pool member Arwind Santos.
“It (result of the game) could have been the other way,” he went on. “We just had an extra-ordinarily good night, maybe because of the stability that we have gotten after the change in management.”
Santos failed to start last night after arriving to the Big Dome without his set of dark uniforms, which were stolen in a laundry shop in Mandaluyong.
Team utility then had his number and name stitched on a set belonging to the injured Homer Se, and Santos responded by contributing those totals in less than three quarters.
The win last night, which snapped a two-game slide and made the Titans improve to 3-2, was the first for Burger King since Mikee Romero left the team late last week.
And from being the Titans, there are reports circulating that the team will soon be known as the Whoppers, the monicker they carried while still playing in the PBL.
Romero, the owner of multi-titled Harbor Center in the PBL, left the team after three games when his deal with the PLDT group of Manny Pangilinan to sell stakes of Harbor Center did not materialize.
Barako Bull, formerly Red Bull, the team which only had Guiao as a coach from 2000 to the end of last season, fell to 1-4.
