This one wasn’t even close.

Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals had a semblance of competition only in the first two minutes as San Mig Coffee bounced back hard on Rain or Shine, with an 80-70 win tying the best-of-seven series at 1-all at the Araneta Coliseum on Sunday night.

The Mixers shot the ball fairly well and was unforgiving defensively – as usual – as they played with complete command all night to grab momentum going into the crucial third game on Wednesday.

Peter June Simon drilled in five straight points that gave the Mixers a 9-4 lead, and San Mig never trailed after that, feeling a slight threat only at the start of the fourth period when Paul Lee made it 58-51.

But San Mig answered with conviction, opening up a 71-53 lead with under eight minutes left after Ian Sangalang scored on a follow-up of a Marc Barroca miss that effectively snuffed the fight out of the game Elasto Painters.

“I cut myself shaving this morning for the first time in maybe five years,” San Mig coach Tim Cone told reporters. “I thought that was a bad sign as far as the team was concerned, especially after coming off a tough first game (of the series).

“But my guys surprised me. I thought they were kind of tired after Game 1,” Cone continued. “We came out strong and our first group played with good energy, when the second group came, they gave us a heck of a job.”

Easily, it was the worst game that the Painters played in more than two months.

Rain or Shine was the hottest team in the league going into Sunday night after winning its last seven elimination round games and losing just one of its first seven games in these playoffs.

The Painters opened up the title series with an 83-80 win and found a San Mig crew that came out not licking the wounds of that loss. They shot just 6-of-26 from three-point range — none on the first half — and hit just 23-of-52 tries from two-point area.

Simon led five players in twin digits with 15 despite being on the floor for only 22 minutes.

Former two-time MVP James Yap was also able to cool his heals and see his team win, shooting 13 in 24 minutes of action with Marc Pingris the only made that played close to 40 minutes for Cone.

And Pingris made sure that he wasn’t a lame duck out there, shooting 11 points that went with 12 boards in another mammoth effort.

“It’s a big bonus for us that we were able to keep James and PJ fresh,” Cone said. “I think, in the past, against this team, we’ve always had problems keeping these guys fresh. It’s a big bonus for us going into Game 3.

“Any break is a welcome break for us, especially after coming off a long series against Ginebra,” Cone said of the coming three-day lull. “But knowing Yeng to be such a good coach, we must be ready for whatever he will throw at us.

The battle underneath was basically one-sided, with Beau Belga, a heavy scorer of late for the Painters, finishing with just seven points and rookie Raymond Almazan had just five.

JR Quinahan was held down to just three markers and the trio accounted for just 18 rebounds.

Joe Devance fired 13 points and Ian Sangalang finished with 10 for San Mig, which is chasing its first all-Filipino title under the Tim Cone era and the franchise’s first back-to-back title romps after ruling last year’s Governors’ Cup over Petron Blaze.