Eighteen points down at one point in the first half and trailing by eight with under five minutes left, Rain or Shine on Sunday night never said die against a team that has made comebacks its trademark.

The Elasto Painters held Barangay Ginebra scoreless inside the final 4:25 to hammer out a rugger, ultra-emotional 82-79 victory that revived Rain or Shine’s hopes of bagging a top two berth in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay.

Standing in the forefront of it all was burly Beau Belga, who did all the dirty work that partially overshadowed how brilliant he was on both ends as the Elasto Painters rebounded mightily from a thorough shellacking taken from San Miguel Beer just two nights before.

Paul Lee and import Wayne Chism were also big in the stretch, as the Painters, semifinalists here last season, closed out with an 11-0 burst to frustrate the Gin Kings.

Rain or Shine rose to 6-3 and reclaimed a piece of second place, just half-a-game behind idle solo leader Meralco, tied with defending champion Purefoods and Talk ‘N Text, with still two games left in their respective schedules.

The Star Hotshots got to 6-3 by dealing the Tropang Texters a 118-117 triple overtime defeat on Saturday night at the University of Southeastern Philippines gym in Davao.

Ginebra took a second straight loss flush on the kisser, blowing an 18-point lead in the second period and a 79-71 advantage with a good 4:25 left after Mark Caguioa drilled a teardrop under heavy pressure.

The Gin Kings, from having a 4-3 record before last week’s All-Star break and in great position to contend for a top two berth, dropped to 4-5 and are now in danger of even missing the playoffs by being tied with three others.

“It’s another one of those hard, rugged, exciting games against Ginebra,” Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said. “In basketball, you have to find ways to win. We played harder and stayed focused.”

Entering the playoffs safely was NLEX, which gutted out a fourth straight victory earlier in the night by ripping Globalport in the second half for a 94-81 win.

KG Canaleta took over offensively for the Road Warriors, tossing in 29 points built around a 6-of-10 clip from beyond three-point region as his brilliance offset what was a lukewarm offensive night for super import Al Thornton.

Thornton, the NBA veteran who dropped 50 points in a similar come-from-behind victory over Barangay Ginebra a few night back, battled consistent double- even triple-teams the whole night on the way to a scant 19 markers, his second lowest output in the tournament.

Though great the NLEX victory was, it simply was overshadowed with the way the Painters and the Kings slugged it out in front of a mammoth crowd at the Pasay venue.

Belga not only did a lot of splendid things on the floor, but he also tried getting the goat of all of Ginebra’s players and the thousands that obviously went to the Astrodome to root for the crowd-darlings.

The 6-foot-5 center got into verbal tussles and several physical plays against Mark Caguioa, import Michael Dunigan, Eman Monfort, several faces in the crowd before later on coming up with the defensive play of the game that sealed the win.

Three Ginebra fans were thrown out of the coliseum for throwing debris in the direction of Belga with just over five minutes left, as the Rain or Shine big man got the goat of several from the stands.

He also had the last laugh by blocking Mac Baracael’s potential game-tying three-point attempt near the buzzer, earning the right to taunt the Ginebra crowd even more by celebration at center court using the antics of some professional wrestlers from the WWE.

Lee finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Chism bucked early foul trouble to shoot the chunk of his 28 points in the final three periods.

Michael Dunigan paced Ginebra with 24 points, while Greg Slaughter finished with 10 despite sitting out a huge part of the second half.