Rain or Shine may be forced to play with an all-Filipino lineup when it meets crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra on Sunday after import Wayne Chism injured his left hamstring in an Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup game against Meralco last Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
No less than RoS coach Yeng Guiao confirmed the sad news after Chism underwent an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test moments after their team lost 98-95 to the unbeaten Bolts.
Guiao said the team was able to contract a possible replacement, but refused to reveal his name.
But whether that import will have enough time to prepare for Rain or Shine’s encounter with Ginebra remains to be seen.
“The import we talked to will be arriving Saturday evening, then our game is Sunday. Instead of helping, that might be a distraction to the team. So we decided that we’ll play all-Filipino,” Guiao said.
“I think we can match up against Ginebra, their import is not tall as compared to other teams. Although with (Greg) Slaughter back, they still have an advantage at frontline,” he added.
The 6-foot-9 Chism, who is in his third straight stint as Rain or Shine import, hurt his hamstring after a bad fall during the third quarter against Meralco.
Despite missing the services of Chism, Rain or Shine showed resiliency when it erased a 26-point deficit to tie the game after the third quarter.
The Elasto Painters had two chances to win it or send the game into overtime but JR Quinahan missed two three-pointers in the dying seconds.
Guiao said Chism would be evaluated after for about a week to see if he can still continue to play. After Sunday’s game, the Elasto Painters next opponent will be the Alaska Aces on Feb. 27 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We’ll see. Matagal pa naman ang next game e. It depends on him. We’ll make a decision early next week. But we’ll look for possible replacement just to be ready if there’s no chance playing Wayne,” said Guiao.
Chism scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds when RoS opened the conference with a 95-86 win against the Star Hotshots last week. He was held to three points and four boards before leaving the court against Meralco.