MANILA: Playing free-wheeling basketball practically the entire night, Rain or Shine still went on to deal newcomer KIA a severe beating and showed the Sorento what it takes to play in the PBA.

With Paul Lee leading the way, the Elasto Painters blew KIA to bits and scored a 117-88 victory Wednesday night or their second straight win in the eliminations of the Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Rain or Shine burst out of the gates hard and never looked back, posting the wire-to-wire, one-sided triumph that not even a phone call from absent head coach Manny Pacquiao could prevent from happening.

Pacquiao, who is preparing for a fight with American Chris Algieri on Nov. 23 in Macau, gave the team a call at the locker room minutes before the game as a sort of inspirational talk that was even covered by television.

But not even that could deny how Rain or Shine put the Sorento in their right place, as the Elasto Painters led by as large as 31.

The loss was the second straight for the Sorento after coming from behind to rip fellow expansion team Blackwater on opening day, but this one was as ugly as the first as KIA has lost its last two games by an average of 30.5 points.

“We started the conference slow (by losing to San Miguel Beer and nipping Blackwater),” said outspoken Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao, who is also a member of the lower house like Pacquiao.

“We’re just trying to regain our chemistry back, our confidence back,” he added. “I guess this is the best way to do it. We were able to sustain our energy level. That was our problem in our first two games.”

Lee made all his defenders look silly.

Coming back from a scary injury in the Painters’ first game, Lee wasn’t even 100% against the Sorento but played a cut above everyone else on the way to four three-pointers and 22 points.

The Painters, as a team, flexed their muscles by getting a total of seven players in twin digits.

Rain or Shine, after going 0-for-25 from three-point land in an 85-77 win over the Elite, converted on 10 with TY Tang, usually the Painters’ third point guard off the bench, starting out to shoot 15 built around three treys in the first period alone.

The Painters coughed the ball up 20 times but still looked impressive.

Reil Cervantes paced the Sorento with 18 points with rookie Alvin Padilla shooting 17.

Meanwhile, NLEX bottled up Barangay Ginebra so hard in the final half on the way to a 97-81 victory in the nightcap.

With a defensive ploy working well against the Triangle Offense, the Road Warriors broke away in the fourth to deal the Gin Kings their first loss and tie Rain or Shine and their victims at 2-1.

Mac Cardona scattered 25 markers, Jonas Villanueva contributed 14 and Nino Canaleta connected on three triples in the fourth that keyed the NLEX breakaway.

The Ginebra loss left only San Miguel Beer, Alaska and the Meralco Bolts as the only undefeated sides in the young tournament.

Chris Ellis scored 19 points to lead Ginebra, which fell completely in taters in the fourth period that even had Japeth Aguilar and several of his teammates engaging in a verbal argument because of a serious mental lapse by the 6-foot-9 forward.

Aguilar, in one play, interfered with the rim with the ball seemingly set to go in which would have given Ellis an opportunity for a three-point play. Instead, the shot was nullified and Ellis had to settle for two free throws.

Josh Urbiztondo immediately went to Aguilar but the beanpole shoved Urbiztondo away. Coach Jeff Cariaso relieved Aguilar after that.

Aguilar shot 15 points in the first half but was held to just two the rest of the way.