Any which way one looked at it, Rain or Shine was every bit of those against a team it thought would be tougher the second time around.

Their three-point shots falling like lay-ups and their defense getting better each game, the Elasto Painters bamboozled the stunned Meralco Bolts Sunday night, setting a new league record and three fresh franchise marks in a totally lopsided 139-95 victory for the solo lead in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.

Rain or Shine connected on 22 three-point shots to set a new standard since the PBA reverted to the old and farther rainbow-territory line in the 2009-10 season, and with it went on to establish franchise records in winning margin of victory (44 points), output (139) and field-goal percentage (66 percent, 53-of-80).

Defending champion Talk ‘N Text actually accomplished knocking down 23 three-point shots twice – on Jan. 4, 2009 against San Miguel Beer (129-100) and on April 8, 2008 against Air21 (116-99). But those were achieved when the PBA went along with the closer FIBA line of 20 feet and 6.1 inches. The current three-point line is 22 feet away from the basket.

The Painters buried 13 triples in the first half alone, and that was the decisive factor why the franchise stormed ahead by a comfortable 68-41 margin at the halftime break that shocked even coach Yeng Guiao.

“I haven’t seen a game like this in a long time,” Guiao said. “The whole team was in a zone and I didn’t expect this from the start. We were shocked.” If that was a surprise to Rain or Shine, imagine what Meralco felt like.

The victory was the Painters fifth in six games, and it rewarded Rain or Shine with the solo lead once more. The Bolts, after back-to-back wins, were sent crashing back to earth and dropped to a 4-3 (win-loss) record.

Ronjay Buenafe scored 15 of his 24 points in the breakaway second quarter, and rookie Paul Lee got the better end of his highly-anticipated confrontation with Sol Mercado with a balanced production of 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Jeff Chan added 20 points and Beau Belga had 14 on 4-of-4 shooting from rainbow country. Jervy Cruz and Ronnie Matias each contributed 10 points. Gabe Norwood had nine assists and seven points for Rain or Shine, which led highest at 45 points (101-56) on a basket by Chan with 14.8 seconds remaining in the third period.

“What really makes it for us is our defense,” Guiao said. “This is a sign of maturity of the team.” Meralco, which appeared to be drifting higher in performance after the return of Mercado and Mark Cardona, suffered its worst defeat since joining the PBA family last season. Cardona had 25 points, Nerlbert Omolon 13, and Mercado 12 for the Bolts, who walked into the contest expected to give the Painters a rough time on defense having limited opponents to an average output of 80 points.

Against the Painters, though, the Bolts’ best weapon was non-existent.

They couldn’t pin-point which player to defend, couldn’t box out in the battle off the boards, and simply couldn’t stop the Painters from draining three-point shots one after the other.

In each of every quarter, the Painters scored at least 33 points.

Gary David scattered a season-best 42 points, and Powerade snapped out of a two-game losing skid in beating Petron, 108-94, in the second game.

Arwind Santos was never part of the Boosters down the stretch, ejected for a flagrant foul-two (elbow) he committed against Ricky Calimag during a heated battle for the rebound. He went out with 3:14 left to play, with Powerade merely ahead by 92-89.

Petron, which at the start of the tournament won three straight games, has now lost three in a row.

“I made sure that he understood that we’re going to be happy if he (David) can lead us to a victory,” said Tigers’ coach Bo Perasol. “But if he misses, we’re still on his side.” It was a big rebound for the scoring sensation, who in Powerade’s 97-80 defeat against B-Meg last Oct. 26, only shot 3-of-13 from the floor for seven points.

“Our goal is to make the Top 6,” Perasol added. “And it order to do that, we have to beat Petron and experience pains and things together.

In that way, we’re going to be better and be a competitor in the tournament.” Doug Kramer added 18 points, and rookies’ Rudy Lingganay and Marcio Lassiter each contributed 11 for the Tigers, a ball club that has not made the quarter-final round for the past seven conferences.

Santos led the Governors’ Cup champion with 23 points and nine rebounds while Alex Cabagnot had 22.

Yet aside from individual brilliances, the game also had a comical side to it.

The rim on Petron’s side during the second half snapped during the half-time warm-up, delaying the contest for about 30 minutes.

Rob Reyes was the culprit, who said that he was only trying to loosen up.

“Well, I was just trying to loosen up and made a dunk before game resumes,” Reyes said. “But the hoop snapped and came down.”