SMART Clark Giga City - Rain or Shine and NLEX tangle Wednesday morning in the opener of another PBA quadruple header, both determined to pick up from where they left off in the bubble restart.
The two pulled off huge reversals just before the PBA went on a four-day break to strengthen its health protocols, with ROS outduelling Barangay Ginebra in overtime, 85-82, and NLEX shocking erstwhile unbeaten TNT Tropang Giga, 109-98.
The morale-boosting victory lifted the E-Painters to solo second at 4-1, well on track for the quarterfinal stint and even the twice-to-beat advantage there.
The Road Warriors, for their part, kept their Last-8 hope alive after picking up their second win in seven games in the bruising encounter with mighty TNT.
ROS coach Caloy Garcia refused to get carried away by their fine showing so far in the all-Filipino bubble.
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"It's very hard, anything can happen here," said Garcia. "We can easily be 1-4. All our games are close so that tells a lot about our players' character."
Garcia will have to manage his players' time on the court, though, as Rain or Shine will immediately hit the Smart 5G-Powered AUG Gym again the next day. The E-Painters play Meralco in the second game of a Thursday triple-header.
"Every game we have to prepare wisely kasi hindi katulad sa Manila na mahaba ang time mo to prepare," he said.
NLEX hasn't shown much teeth in the Clark bubble until its toppling of the Tropang Giga last Thursday.
"That was the proudest I've been since we entered the bubble," said coach Yeng Guiao.
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"We played better defense than our previous games and it looks like we're in better shape than we were a week ago."
The Road Warriors are hard-pressed to score Ws in the stretch of the elims to get a crack at the playoffs.
"I hope it's not too late but we'll try to get better every day," said Guiao. (OL)
