MANILA: With one flick of the wrist — during Game 2’s most pressure-packed stretch — Arizona Reid validated the Best Import award he won less than three hours before.

The braid-haired Reid dropped a three-pointer with 6.7 seconds left on Thursday night for an 89-87 victory by Rain or Shine over San Mig Coffee and a 1-1 standoff in their best-of-five title series for the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

“That’s why he is the Best Import,” Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said a few moments later. “He has been carrying us on his shoulders the whole tournament and he carried us again tonight.”

Reid actually had a dressing down from Guiao at the locker room during the halftime break, after he scored just two points and had just three rebounds in the first two quarters. Still, the Elasto Painters were able to forge a 37-all score at the half.

Also the winner of the Best Import trophy in 2011, Reid then came out for the third quarter in a business-like manner, shooting 13 points before helping the Painters survive a lukewarm fourth period.

“I was frustrated at him in the first half and I told him (Reid, during the halftime break), that he could do better than that,” Guiao said.

That triple was gutsy, to say the least, as the Painters were staring at an 86-87 deficit after James Yap — who scored all of the defending champion Mixers’ seven overtime points — shoved San Mig ahead, with an 18-foot jumper with 13 seconds to go.

“That play was for him (Reid) to attack with seven seconds left, so that if we missed, we would have a chance for another (offensive),” Guiao said.

With the Mixers also in penalty, Reid totally caught defender Marc Pingris by surprise when he elected to pull up for the long jumper.

Reid finished with 29 points , 17 rebounds and four assists, totally rescuing the Painters from another near-collapse after Rain or Shine had closed out the third period sitting on a 66-59 bulge.

For a while, it looked like the second game would be following the same path that the series-opener took, when the Mixers rallied hard in the fourth period to score a 104-101 victory, though controversially.

Rain or Shine also bungled a chance to win it in regulation when Paul Lee missed four free throws and Beau Belga two with 48.4 seconds remaining which would have broken the game’s last tie at 80.

San Mig also muffed a chance to win it in regulation after Marqus Blakely, with the Mixers having possession in the final 2.5 seconds, failed to launch an attempt in time to beat the game clock.

“Bottom line is we did not execute in the endgame,” rued losing coach Tim Cone, who got 22 points from Yap, 17 and 13 rebounds from Pingris and 14 and 14 from Blakely.

Game 3, which could turn out to be the most crucial in this championship series, will be played Saturday night also at the Big Dome in Cubao.

Meanwhile, after staying on track for his sixth championship as a coach, Guiao took the chance to inform the media of an action that Rain or Shine will take regarding the controversy surrounding the Draft lottery that happened before Game 1.

A video of the proceedings has gone viral on the internet after commissioner Chito Salud, who performed the lottery, failed to take his hand out of the box of balls containing the names of Globalport and Meralco as to who will own the first overall pick.

Globalport, which had two balls and a 67% chance of winning, won the lottery and Meralco, which had just one, thus settled for the No. 2 pick, which, incidentally, is already owned by Rain or Shine owing to a previous transaction.

“We are pursuing our intention to have the lottery draw investigated if possible,” said the outspoken Guiao, who later on questioned the credibility of Salud in running the PBA. “The most fatal flaw was that the commissioner did not show his hand after he put the ball in the box. It’s a question of credibility and integrity.

“We thought it was just crude, lacking in credibility. I don’t think that the issue is the process, the process needs to be improved, definitely, but I guess it’s really the credibility and the integrity of the process itself and the commissioner who conducted the lottery draw.”

Guiao also got back at Salud, who issued a post-Game 1 statement regarding the incident on Lee who was fishing for a foul off Pingris in the dying seconds on Tuesday night.

“(This request of an investigation is) for the good of the league. Why do we have to subject ourselves to a crude method?” Guiao said. “If we cannot conduct a credible, simple lottery draw, how can we conduct a professional basketball league?”