Rain or Shine is keen on writing a different chapter in its third straight trip to the PBA semifinals.

“We really want to go to the Finals. It’s been so long,” Beau Belga said in Filipino as the Elasto Painters eye an upset victory over the TNT Tropang Giga in their best-of-seven series which starts next week.

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Belga and Rain or Shine fell short in their last two appearances, getting swept by San Miguel Beer in last year’s Philippine Cup in a similar race-to-four, before bowing to TNT in five games during the season-opening Governors’ Cup.

Both setbacks are enough for the Elasto Painters to be highly motivated heading into the showdown with the Tropang Giga, who made short work of guest team Hong Kong Eastern in their own quarterfinal matchup where they didn’t have to use their twice-to-beat advantage.

“We lost our last series against TNT, and we will look at that as motivation for this next series,” coach Yeng Guiao said. “We don’t want to be in the same situation, so we’ll try to do our best and see what happens.”

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Rain or Shine will also be riding high on its hard-fought quarterfinal win over Converge, bucking a Game 1 loss to win the next two behind import Deon Thompson, Adrian Nocum and Belga, who made use of his short appearance in the fourth quarter of Game 3 to knock down two key triples.

Rain or Shine’s marches to the semifinals came by way of winning deciding quarterfinal matches, against TNT before that series with the Beermen, and Magnolia in the last conference.

Presence underneath

“We’ve been able to survive these do-or-die games against TNT and Magnolia,” said Belga. “So this group knows that it has what it takes to win no-tomorrow games.”

The Elasto Painters edged out the Tropang Giga, 106-96, in their elimination round meeting last Jan. 31 at Philsports Arena in Pasig City where Anton Asistio delivered 21 points built on six three-pointers.

Thompson also put up 22 points, 16 rebounds and five assists, numbers Rain or Shine will need apart from his presence underneath, especially against TNT counterpart Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

Rookie Caelan Tiongson could also be tapped to provide Thompson support on the defensive end, so is Santi Santillan, even as point guard Andrei Caracut will aim to regain the level he has shown during the playoffs last conference.