MANILA: Alaska got a gift in return from Rain or Shine.

The Aces did just enough to repulse Barako Bull, 108-100 on Saturday night and then watched as Rain or Shine bungled its chance of making the PBA Philippine Cup Final Four outright at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

That meant that Alaska, which gave the Elasto Painters the chance to make the semifinals automatically by beating San Miguel Beer on Wednesday, advanced to the Final Four together with the Beermen with Rain or Shine falling to third place.

The Elasto Painters blew command against an NLEX side that had very little to gain, with the Road Warriors pulling out a 111-106 victory in the nightcap.

Calvin Abueva scored 22 points and Vic Manuel fired 21 for the Aces, who became the top seeds and will have the benefit of spending the holidays with their respective families as they – like the Beermen – will not see action until Jan. 4.

The NLEX victory made Rain or Shine finish with an 8-3 record with the Painters to play the No. 10 seed, needing to win once to make it to the Final Four via the longer route.

That last playoff spot, incidentally, will be decided on Sunday when Mahindra and Blackwater, which entered the league together last season, slug it out at 3 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

The other Sunday game pitting Barangay Ginebra against TNT will be for final rankings, with both the Gin Kings and the Tropang Texters already assured of twice-to-beat privileges in the first phase.

Victories will determine who the Texters and the Gin Kings would face in the quarterfinals.

Should Ginebra prevail, it would tab No. 4 ranking and would collide with Star.

A TNT win, meanwhile, would put the Texters in a collision course with the Hotshots, who are at ninth no matter the results of the final two games on Sunday.

Globalport is firmly at No. 5 and will collide with the Energy, with the Batang Pier also enjoying a twice-to-beat privilege after ending the eliminations with a 7-5 record.

The loser of the Ginebra-TNT game will be clashing with the Road Warriors, ,a dangerous side considering that NLEX had lost all of its games in the eliminations by small margins and dragged powerhouse teams to the limit.

“This (win) gives us a positive outlook going into the quarterfinals,” NLEX coach Boyet Fernandez said after getting a career-high 37 points from Sean Anthony. “Games will be tougher in the playoffs and we have to take it one at a time.”

Anthony definitely made up for the blunder he committed against Barangay Ginebra last week, when he missed a wide-open short stab at the buzzer that resulted in a 90-91 NLEX loss and took the Road Warriors out of the race for a twice-to-beat privilege.

Mahindra vs Blackwater will be a very interesting tussle since both squads will be looking to make the playoffs for the first time, a personal race that started when they entered the league as expansion squads last season.

Formerly known as KIA, Mahindra won the only time they collided in the all-Filipino last year, doing it in front of more than 52,000 fans at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan where eight-division world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao made his first appearance as a pro basketball player.

Pacquiao has been in and out of the Mahindra roster from then – depending on his availability – but the Enforcers have so far proven themselves worthy and are on the cusps of making the playoffs for the first time.

The winner of the Mahindra-Blackwater match will advance to slug it out with Rain or Shine in the first phase, needing two straight wins to make it to the best-of-three second stage.