WITH what's at stake, expect a titanic collision between Rain or Shine and NorthPort Sunday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Don Honorio Ventura State University Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Already assured of a quarterfinals slot the Elasto Painters are still gunning for a third straight win which would enable them to finish the eliminations with a 7-4 record and stay in the hunt for the No. 2 slot and the last twice-to-beat advantage in the next round.
At worst, the same card would lodge Rain or Shine somewhere in the middle of the last eight where matchups between the Nos. 4 and 5 and Nos. 3 and 7 are best-of-three affairs.
"Everyone is jostling for playoff position and we have started to turn our mindset to a playoff mode where the crux is in the details," said E-Painters coach Chris Gavina on the eve of the match.
NorthPort would gladly settle for such pairings among the middle teams. First, however, the Batang Pier must not only snap out of back-to-back losses but also win against both the E-Painters and Alaska next week to advance and avoid the pitfalls a loss or two would entail.
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After watching how NorthPort almost upended Magnolia Ang Pambansang Manok before falling 89-90 last Friday, Gavina knows his side is in for a rough night.
"NorthPort played all the way to the wire against Magnolia and with the return of (Sean) Anthony and (Greg) Slaughter gave them two more players to help their cause," said Gavina.
Indeed, Slaughter and Anthony were impressive in their return from a two-game absence with the seven-foot slotman tallying 21 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots and the do-it-all forward silently working his way to 16 points, six rebounds and three assists despite a still hurting foot.
That loss, brought about by Calvin Abueva making a short, buzzer-beating jumper, marked the third time in the conference NorthPort lost on a last-second shot.
That is in direct contrast to Rain or Shine, which has won four games this conference by a total of seven points, including its most recent ones against Magnolia (75-72) and San Miguel Beer (95-93).
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Gavina has tried to prepare his team accordingly, to avoid such anxious and stressful moments anew.
"These past few days we have been addressing the details on offense we evaluated from our last game that we needed to improve on as well as working on being locked in in executing our rules on defense," offered Gavina. (NC)
