<\/p>\n
Rain or Shine Elasto Painters\u2019 Jaylen Johnson during a game vs Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings within the 2026 PBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup semifinals. \u2013MARLO CUETO\/INQUIRER.net<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The PBA semifinals has been a well-recognized destination for Rain or Shine over the past two years\u2014they simply haven\u2019t gone past that.<\/p>\n
But in Wednesday\u2019s Game 1 win over Barangay Ginebra has given Adrian Nocum and the Elasto Painters the assumption that the core that they had been slowly constructing and cultivating under coach Yeng Guiao can finally recover from the proverbial hump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has been the most important thing for us,\u201d Nocum told the Inquirer, praising the Guiao system as Rain or Shine goes for a 2-0 lead of their Commissioner\u2019s Cup Final 4 series on Friday on the Mall of Asia Arena.<\/p>\n
Tipoff is at 5:15 p.m. because the Elasto Painters hope to shut in on a spot within the championship round\u2014something they’ve failed to assert in 4 previous trips to the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Rain or Shine took the opener, 115-111, at Ynares Center in Antipolo after rallying from a 10-point deficit within the fourth quarter, where import Jaylen Johnson and Jhonard Clarito were firing on all cylinders. The Painters paired that effort with defensive gems and timely plays from Nocum and Gian Mamuyac to fuel a mighty finish.<\/p>\n
Johnson finished with 40 points and 19 rebounds and Clarito had 25 points.<\/p>\n
It was Rain or Shine\u2019s first victory in Game 1 of a semifinal series because the 2019 Philippine Cup, as all of the series openers against San Miguel Beer (2024 Philippine Cup) and TNT (2024 Governors\u2019 Cup, 2024-25 Commissioner\u2019s Cup and 2025 Philippine Cup) led to defeats.<\/p>\n
Last independent champ<\/p>\n
The Elasto Painters haven\u2019t been to the Finals since winning all of it back within the 2016 Commissioner\u2019s Cup, the last time an independent ballclub ruled a PBA conference. Nocum and the young core need three more wins to interrupt that spell.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost everyone on the team is similar age and as we go down the trail of wanting to realize our goal, it\u2019s still the identical group,\u201d Nocum said in Filipino. \u201cSo it can be huge for us if we could get to the Finals, hopefully, because we are going to mature so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get there, they\u2019ll must undergo more hardships against a Ginebra side that carries a great deal of experience and the always-advantageous crowd support. If Game 1 was hard, Nocum expects Game 2 to be harder.<\/p>\n
\u201c[W]e know they\u2019ll be scouting us they usually\u2019ll make essential adjustments,\u201d the third-year product of Mapua said. \u201cBut in fact, we’d like to place in additional effort for us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, TNT will likewise seek a 2-0 lead over sister team Meralco in the opposite semis series at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
The Tropang 5G secured a 94-89 win in Wednesday\u2019s other semis opener, with the locals leading the charge and provided ample support for his or her celebrated import Bol Bol.<\/p>\n
Meralco, nonetheless, is keen on squaring the series after two games, with import Marvin Jones expected to pose problems once more for TNT.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rain or Shine Elasto Painters\u2019 Jaylen Johnson during a game vs Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings within the 2026 PBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup semifinals. \u2013MARLO CUETO\/INQUIRER.net The PBA semifinals has been a well-recognized destination for Rain or Shine over the past two years\u2014they simply haven\u2019t gone past that. But in Wednesday\u2019s Game 1 win over Barangay Ginebra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[582,1114,25067,2374,612,2375,1148],"class_list":["post-338763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-finally","tag-hurdle","tag-obstacle","tag-rain","tag-run","tag-shine","tag-title"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338766,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338763\/revisions\/338766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}