Thirty-two points, 19 rebounds and so much energy all game long, that’s how Josh Davis answered people who asked questions about his health.

With his back suspect after figuring in a horrific fall more than two weeks ago, Davis was back to his old self for Meralco on Friday night as the Bolts reclaimed a piece of the lead in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup after a 98-85 win over Barako Bull at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

The Bolts led practically from start to finish with Davis providing a lot of intensity, but Meralco needed two big three-pointers in the stretch to thwart the hard-fighting Energy and catch idle Talk ‘N Text on top at 6-2.

Meralco snapped a two-game losing streak with the win, checking a slide that happened when Davis limped out of the floor in the first quarter against San Miguel Beer before coming back in less than 100% shape to drop a game against NLEX.

And against a Barako Bull side that was bannered by 7-foot-2 import Solomon Alabi, many wrote off the Bolts as the decided underdogs for fear that Davis had yet to fully recover from that fall.

“It’s nice to have Josh Davis at 100% (health),” coach Norman Black of Meralco said after the Bolts inflicted a third straight defeat on the Energy. “His energy and intensity did wonders (for the team).”

Barako Bull, which opened up the tournament with a franchise-best three straight wins, was at 4-2 at one point, slipped to 4-5 and is now tied for eighth spot with idle KIA Motors as the race for playoff berths heats up.

Tournament format calls for just the top eight teams to advance to the first round of the playoffs where Nos. 1 and 2 will get twice-to-beat privileges against Nos. 8 and 7, respectively.

“Josh brings so much energy to the table,” Black continued. “We really want to get back to where we were before Josh got hurt.”

Davis had a lot of help in the fourth as Gary David tossed in 11 of his 14 points in the fourth period, including the dagger triple with 1:56 remaining that made it 92-81.

That triple was actually the second straight for the Bolts in a 34-second span.

Hugnatan, who finished with 21 points, earlier hit one off a broken play as the Bolts stopped the Energy on their tracks. Barako had been trying to nibble away at a 14-point deficit and came to within 86-81 before that Hugnatan triple.

San Miguel Beer got a huge second half lift from Arizona Reid later in the night as the Beermen ripped Rain or Shine, 129-114, to stay in the running for a playoff berth.

The Beermen won their second straight game after getting 41 points from Reid – 16 of them in the fourth quarter – as San Miguel improved to 3-6.

Rain or Shine was hurt by its former import Reid, who got into a squabble with coach Yeng Guiao with under two minutes left that caused the ejection of the Elasto Painters’ head coach.

Wayne Chism paced the Painters with 50 points, the second such performance by an import this week. On Wednesday, NBA veteran Al Thornton exploded for the same number and helped NLEX rally to beat Barangay Ginebra.

The loss was the third in eight games for the Painters, whose bid for a place in the top two hit a snag.

June Mar Fajardo tossed in 30 and Arwind Santos 18 to back up Reid, who later said that he doesn’t carry a grudge on his former coach.

“Basketball is not personal to me,” Reid said in the post-game interview. “I respect him as a person and if it wasn’t for coach Yeng, I wouldn’t be with San Miguel.”