No import, no problem
Rain or Shine’s all-Filipino crew is playing as one well-oiled unit that the Elasto Painters remained unbeaten after three games in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, which even made coach Yeng Guiao crack a joke after a 109-102 win over Meralco at the Smart Araneta Coliseum for the solo lead on Friday night.
“It seems like we don’t need him (import Jaylen Johnson),” Guiao said in Filipino with a sheepish smile. “We’re going to send him home.”
The mercurial coach had his wits about him after the win, as the Elasto Painters brought down the Bolts to stay as one of two unbeaten sides in the 13-team field.
“We wanted to offer the effort to Jaylen,” Guiao said of his import, who served out his one-game ban slapped by the Commissioner’s Office for fighting with Glenn Khobuntin of TNT in their previous game. “We knew he wanted to play this and help us out.”
Johnson was also ordered to pay a P50,000 fine. Khobuntin got a two-game ban and a P70,000 fine.
But even without Johnson, Rain or Shine showed its composure down the stretch.
At the 4:52 mark of the fourth quarter, when Rain or Shine led by one, 95-94, Luis Villegas sank a long-bomb for the Elasto Painters that ultimately kick-started an 11-0 run to take a 106-94 lead with 2:52 to go.
Chris Newsome stopped the bleeding for the Bolts with a bucket and a foul to cut the deficit to nine, 106-97, with 2:39 remaining.
Adrian Nocum, though, completely shut the door on the Bolts when he soared for a heavily-defended layup to keep Meralco at bay, 108-97, heading into the final 71 seconds.
Felix Lemetti led the Painters with 23 points—the second-best offensive production of his career—that went with three assists, two rebounds and a block.
“We knew Jaylen was gone, so we knew we had to step up,” Lemetti said.
Helping the streaky sniper was Nocum, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds. The troika of Caelan Tiongson, Jhonard Clarito and Christian Manaytay, all tossed in twin digits and combined for 43 points.
Meralco, as a whole, had its struggles from the field, something Guiao was quick to acknowledge.
“We caught Meralco on a bad day,” Guiao said. “[Maybe] they were complacent and a little bit overconfident, so psychologically, we had the upper hand playing with nothing to lose and no expectations going against them.
“That had a huge psychological effect.”
Newsome finished with 29 points for the Bolts, with import Marvin Jones turning in 17 points and 16 rebounds that went down the drain. Jason Brickman had 15, while Bong Quinto and CJ Cansino scored 14 and 13, but still couldn’t help the Bolts from dropping to 2-1.
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