Elasto Painters win 3rd straight, rout Mixers

MANILA, Philippines – Rain or Shine ended 2013 with a three-game romp capped by an emphatic 101-77 win over San Mig Coffee that kept the Elasto Painters in strong contention for a twice-to-beat incentive in the quarterfinals of the PLDT MyDSL PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City Sunday night.

The Elasto Painters were an explosive bomb in their pre-New Year’s Eve outing, blasting into pieces the San Mig Coffee Mixers and thus staying right behind the Barangay Ginebra Kings (9-1) and the Petron Blaze Boosters (8-2) with a 7-3 win-loss card heading into the January stretch of this all-Filipino tourney.

Aggressive and effective from the start, the E-Painters utterly dominated the Mixers in a lopsided match making San Mig coach Tim Cone – flabbergasted and frustrated – silent on their bench nearly the entire final half.

Staring at a 34-57 deficit at the half, Cone hardly said a word during the halftime break.

Cone later let assistant coach Jeffrey Cariaso do the talking during timeouts in the third and fourth quarters.

The multi-titled American mentor broke his silence only towards the end with his reserves playing the closing seconds.

But there’s simply no stopping Rain or Shine from notching a first three-game streak in the tourney.

Working on all cylinders all night, the Elasto Painters went “back-to-back-to-back” while dealing the Mixers a seventh loss against only three wins.