MANILA, 8 July 2006 — Purefoods blew hot, cold and then hot again last night and the sizzling Chunkee Giants are now threatening to blow off the Red Bull Barako in the title playoffs for the PBA Philippine Cup.

A 93-82 victory before a modest Cuneta Astrodome crowd gave the Giants a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series, a deficit which only one team had come back from in the last five years, which, ironically, this same Purefoods side seems to have a monopoly on.

“The only advantage we have is that we have to win only two more games and they (Barako) four,” coach Ryan Gregorio, surprisingly stoic after the win, said. “And until we get No. 4, there are no guarantees. We have to win No. 3 first.

“And right now, this (win) is over and done with,” Gregorio added. “We now have to start working for (Game 3 on) Sunday (tomorrow).” James Yap scored 23 points, Marc Pingris chipped in with 21 and 12 rebounds and Richard Yee came off the bench and provided a glittering spark for the second straight game with 17 as Purefoods seized command of the series.

And the Giants have recent history on their side, as they were the only ones ever to pull out a comeback from being two games down, most recently against Alaska in the semifinals where they fell behind 0-2 and then 1-3 to the Aces.

Before that feat, Purefoods, which then had Gregorio as interim coach, also overhauled a 0-2 deficit against Alaska to bag the 2002 Governors Cup by winning the next three games and clinching the series in seven games.

This game, like in the series opener, followed basically the same pattern.

It was played in spurts, with the Giants zooming to a 16-point first quarter deficit before losing the lead as early as the second canto.

The only difference last night was that the Giants played better defense, especially in the fourth period where they held the streak-shooting Barako to just five points in the first seven minutes to bloat a 67-62 third quarter lead to 82-67. “I’ve always thought that the first team that loses its cool (in the game and the series) will lose,” Gregorio said. “We lost another huge lead but not our composure. This game showed a lot of my team’s character more than anything else.” From that 16-point deficit, the Barako again furiously worked their way back into the fight and even sat on a 48-39 lead at the half after Lordy Tugade shot 13 of Red Bull’s 35 second quarter points as the rest of the team held Purefoods to just 15 for the period.

But Tugade sat out majority of the second half after mildly twisting his knee in one offensive play and the rest of the team went down with him. Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao kept his team inside the locker room way after the game as the Barako surely cannot afford to lose Game 3 and think of winning this series.

The Purefoods victory dealt Guiao’s personal aspirations of winning the only championship that has eluded him in his career a huge blow. His prior four championships — two each with defunct Swift and Red Bull — all came with high-profile imports.

The affable mentor, who brought the likes of Tony Harris, Ronnie Thompkins, Antonio Lang and James Penny to the PBA, had even joked, in a sportswriters’ forum last week, on retiring once Red Bull wins this series.

Red Bull will have less than two days to figure out what has been going wrong, with the crucial third game scheduled tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum. And part of the problem that the Barako must address is how to stop Purefoods’ dynamic trio — James Yap, Pingris and Kerby Raymundo — from inflicting most of the damage.