By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine kicks off its bid in the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup when it takes on a Meralco side eager to bounce back from its first game setback on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Ynares Center in Montalban.
The Elasto Painters are looking to give retiring veteran Gabe Norwood a fitting start to his PBA swan song in the 7:30 p.m. against the Bolts.
Raising the curtain in the first offering is an interesting clash between the Calvin Abueva-led Titan Ultra against a vastly improved Converge at 5:15 p.m.
Norwood announced that he will be playing his final conference in the PBA and that should give Rain or Shine all the motivation to try and pick up the good start to their bid of finally winning the franchise and coach Yeng Guiao’s first all-Filipino Cup title.
Adrian Nocum, Gian Mamuyac, and Andrei Caracut should be at the forefront of the attack for the Elasto Painters while Keith Datu and the fit-again Beau Belga are expected to man the points especially that the team is expected to be without Leonard Santillan and Luis Villegas.
Offseason addition Stanley Pringle is also donning his Rain or Shine jersey for the first time in the contest
The Bolts, however, would not easily back down, especially that they are trying to avoid falling into a 0-2 hole after dropping their opening game against the Giant Risers, 96-100 just two days ago.
The biggest concern for head coach Luigi Trillo, however is the amount of preparation time the team has since they will be entering a hectic stretch in their schedule that will see the Bolts play three more games in a week span.
“We are facing Rain or Shine. They got 10 days to prepare. For us we have to go in with one day of preparation. After that we have three days, and then we face ginebra so they can watch and scout and really take us out of our flow kami, just one day and you have to move on,” said Trillo.
Chris Newsome will be tasked to lead the way for Meralco but he needs help from the rest of the team in Bong Quinto and Allein Maliksi.
In the first game, meanwhile, fresh off a 41-point explosion in their first game, Calvin Abueva will be facing up against a familiar man at the sidelines against Converge. Pampanga vice governor Dennis Delta Pineda will be making his debut as the FiberXers head coach.
Pineda and Abueva go a long way back with the former helping the latter when he was still starting in his basketball career.
All eyes is also at the second overall pick of the recent draft Juan Gomez de Liano as he makes his first game in the PBA
