MANILA: Rain or Shine and Talk ‘N Text took surprisingly contrasting routes in routing separate lowly foes Friday night in the PBA Philippine Cup.

The Elasto Painters hardly broke a sweat in ripping Barako Bull, 99-71, before the Tropang Texters took three quarters to dust off KIA Motors, 85-62, and keep in step in the elimination round of the season-opening conference at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

Rain or Shine settled the outcome early after holding the Energy to a measly seven first quarter points, playing in cruise control the rest of the way as the Elasto Painters rose to 3-2 and kept Barako Bull winless in four games.

The performance of the Painters was a complete turnaround from the effort they displayed last, when they lost to the Texters also in an ugly manner.

It turned out that coach Yeng Guiao, who wasn’t in the game because of a commitment with Congress in Hong Kong, issued the players an ultimatum by threatening to trade them if they didn’t come up with the effort.

Jeff Chan scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and four others drilled in 10 points or more for the Painters, who had a 55-28 lead at the half before assistant coach Caloy Garcia had some of his stars taking much-needed bench time.

“Basically, coach Yeng just told them that if they cannot perform, and the effort is not there, why keep them,” Garcia said during the post-game interview. “It was very obvious that in our first four games, we were not playing our game.

“Today, the players came out strong and you could see that the effort was there,” concluded Garcia.

Paul Lee returned and was broken in slowly by Garcia, with the former Rookie of the Year playing 20 minutes to shoot seven points and issue two assists.

JC Intal and William Wilson scored 12 points each to lead the Energy, a veterans-laden squad who just couldn’t keep in step with the scorching Rain or Shine start that they lost their worst game of the young season.

The early Rain or Shine breakaway was totally unexpected, with the Energy certainly by no means a push-over team.

And Talk ‘N Text getting its rhythm late was also a surprise, considering that KIA had been easy picking for teams with the same caliber as the Tropang Texters.

“We struggled a bit on offense at the start,” Talk ‘N Text coach Jong Uichico said after also rising to 3-2. “They did a good job defending us in the first half and we needed to find a way to get a rhythm in the second half.”

Kelly Williams scored eight of his team-high 13 points in the third period and the Talk ‘N Text defense held the Sorento to just two points in the first six minutes of the quarter to scoot away.

The Texters actually gave up just nine third quarter points to KIA, which dropped to 1-4.

Meanwhile, San Miguel Beer tries to bounce back from its first loss of the season when the Beermen battle NLEX Saturday in an out-of-town game slated at the Mindanao Civic Center in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.

Coming off a 66-63 defeat where all the kinks in their armor were exposed by the unforgiving Alaska Aces’ defense, the Beermen are still installed as the solid picks to conquer the Road Warriors in the lone game scheduled at 5 p.m.

June Mar Fajardo, the 6-foot-10 San Miguel Beer cornerstone who is also the reigning MVP, was starved to just 10 points in that loss.

He is expected to have another rough night as he faces former MVP Asi Taulava for the first time in the tournament as the Road Warriors also try to bounce back from a defeat.