About last night: Rain or Shine, Burger King take care of business to advance to the quarterfinals

Posted by Jaemark Tordecilla on May 28, 2009 at 21:26 | Comments (3)

Gabe Norwood and Solomon Mercado of the Rain or Shine Elastopainters

The PBA Fiesta Conference playoffs kicked off yesterday with the higher seeds doing quick work of their opponents.

Sol Mercado was too hot to handle for the Barako Bull Energy Boosters in the opener, scoring 27 of his first 29 points in the first half, to book the Rain or Shine Elastopainters the first ticket to the quarterfinals with a 98-88 victory. But RoS fans had to hold their collective breath as Mercado came out limping in the fourth quarter after suffering what looked like a hamstring injury.

The second game saw the Burger King Whoppers withstand a late charge by the Alaska Aces before winning, 96-90, to advance to the quarters. Yeng Guiao's conference-long strrategy of defending opposing imports, usually the most athletic players on the other team, exclusively with his fat guys, JR Quinahan, Beau Belga, and Shawn Daniels (or as Mico Halili calls them, Extra Rice Incorporated). Guiao has been hailed as one of the last practitioners of Robert Jaworski-style coaching, and I'm so glad he's carrying on the Jaworski tradition of using fat guys as enforcers. Somewhere, Chito and Joey Loyzaga, Rudy Distrito, Jayvee Gayoso, Nonoy Chuatico, Pido Jarencio, and Dudut Jaworski must all be very proud.

(UPDATE: I'm kicking myself for leaving off two legendary Ginebra bangers from the '90s, Noli Locsin and Wilmer Ong, from the original list. To Mr. Locsin and Mr. Ong, please accept my sincerest apologies.)

So far, I'm 2-0 in my playoff predictions, but yesterday's games were gimmes. The knockout games this Friday, Sta. Lucia-Coke and Talk N Text-Purefoods, should be much tougher.

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Tags: Air 21 Express / Burger King Whoppers, Alaska Aces, Barako Bull Energy Boosters / Barako Energy Coffee Masters, Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings, Basketball, Philippine Basketball Association, Rain or Shine Elastopainters, Sol Mercado

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Comments

#1 Rafe on 2009-05-29 13:52 (Reply)

You definitely anticipated the Wilmer Ong shout out, which was my first thought when I read your original list. (I almost got my ass kicked by a very big and angry Ateneo old-timer who I accused of playing dirty like Wilmer Ong. Them's fighting words -- even though Ong was a Blue Eagle, no one seems to want to be compared to him.) Locsin, from what I've seen, had great hops and moves for a guy named "The Tank."

Imagine the meatheads Yeng could throw at imports if he had taken over this roster 2-3 years ago when it was Air21... Ryan Bernardo, Homer Se. Bernardo, especially, seemed to have wandered off the screen from the old Nintendo version of Ice Hockey, where you could choose between fast skinny players or slow, fat ones who could shoot really hard. Why do the best enforcers have names like Homer Se and Wilmer Ong? They sound just sound dangerous.

I think it's unlikely, but I'd love to see the Big J come back to coaching. I don't think he'd risk his reputation on it. The game is different now. But it'd be great to see that white towel draped on his shoulder, with him conducting 20,000 lunatics in the crowd. I've only imagined this moment and seen it in videos, but it must be amazing.

#1.1 jaemark on 2009-05-29 14:19 (Reply)

You left out the best part of Jaworski coming back: he never officially retired! I can't imagine him coming back and not putting himself as part of the roster. At the very least, he'd be more useful than Macky Escalona.

I remember a game in the mid-90s, I think this was during the Marlou Aquino-Bal David era, and Ginebra actually had a pretty good team. They were winning huge, so he emptied his bench, and in the fourth quarter, he went to the scorer's table to put himself in. The crowd naturally went apeshit... but the scorer did not allow him to check in, because he already put in twelve players in the game, and he'd be the thirteenth, so he couldn't play anymore.

#2 Mistervader on 2009-11-16 13:30 (Reply)

I remember when Jaworski put himself in the game once, and tried to impress a former import who was watching that game. He ended up with I think two 3-pointers and 5 assists, including two amazing behind-the-back passes, one of them an actual save of a ball headed to the outside. Considering he only took two shots that night and made both of them, that was an amazing game.