RAIN or Shine definitely has its task cut out for it in the resumption of the PBA Philippine Cupin Pampanga and has bolstered its arsenal to get the job done.
According to coach Chris Gavina, James Yap, Vince Tolentino and Anton Asistio are all back in harness and ready to help boost the inconsistent offense of the Elasto Painters.
“James, Anton, Vince basically lahat ready ng makalaro ulit,” said Gavina. “‘Yung tatlong iyon will deepen our rotation.”
Yapunderwent minor knee surgery in the pre-season while Asistio and Tolentinotweaked their ankles early in the season-opening tournament.
Rain or Shine’s defense remains topnotch despite the transition from Caloy Garcia to Gavina in the pre-season, holding opponents to a league-low 74.3 points on a fifth-worst 37.7 percent shooting. Its opponents have also committed a league-high 18.2 turnovers.
Sadly though, the E-Painters’ offense has struggled mightily as they put up 73.2 points on 34.5 percent shooting, which are both dead-last in the 12-team field.They also have the least number of possessions an outing and scored only 0.87 points per shot, good for 11th overall.
Gavina believes his team now has more tools to remedy that. “We are the lowest (shooting) percentage team so we’re hoping we can turn that around in the second half of eliminations,” he said.
Rain or Shine is running fifth with a 4-2 record and needs just two more victories in its last five eliminations games to enter the quarterfinals without any glitch.
Like everyone else in the upper half of the standings, the E-Painters have their sights on a top two finish in the eliminations, which will be rewarded with a twice-to-beat advantage over a lower-ranked team in the quarterfinals.
Aside from having Yap and Co., Gavina also wants to have at least one day of practice time at the official venue, the Don Honorio Ventura State Ugym, for his team to get a feel of the place, something they did not have before at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
“Sana nga, at least one day before,” said Gavina. “For sure, that’s why everybody had such a low shooting percentage. Iba din talaga kapag hindi ka pa sanay sa venue.”
All the teams would tryto find their rhythm anew after a month-long layoff, caused by the PBA halting play and taking time finding an alternate venue when COVID cases surged in Metro Manila.
The PBA finally settled on Pampanga, with the teams entering the province and starting their semi-bubble format Monday last week.
“Kaya ‘yung mga Zoom workouts namin during the break paying dividends ngayon,” said Gavina.
“Our guys look solid. Timing na lang talaga kailangan, saka ‘yung game rhythm. Nag-increase kami ng scrimmages after conditioning in our first two days here,” added Gavina.
“Last couple of days game-prep na kami, in case.”
All the teams underwent the required RT-PCR testing yesterday, with Rain or Shine among the first to get swabbed and perhaps immediately plunging into action, depending on the test results.
Commissioner Willie Marcial had earlier said games could start either with a tripleheader tomorrow or a doubleheader the day after. The weekly schedule starts coming out this afternoon.
“We have to prepare-for-the-worst mentality,” Gavina half-jokingly said.
