PLAYING before a partisan crowd at the Cuneta Astrodome is nothing new to returning Rain or Shine import Duke Crews.
That's why in his first game back in the PBA, Crews made waves right away as he steered the Elasto Painters to a 118-112 win over fan favorite Ginebra on Friday.
Crews proved that bringing him in to replace Shawn Taggart was the right decision for Rain or Shine as he fired 28 points and collared 22 boards to go with two assists and the same number of blocks to help the team improve to 5-4.
Asked later if the Ginebra fans' jeers fired him up, the 6-5 Crews said he was just doing what he's paid for.
"I play like that every night. It ain't because it's Ginebra. That really don't mean too much to me," said the American reinforcement, who played for the same team in the 2011-2012 season.
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Even though most of his teammates now are new to him, Crews said it helped that Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia is running similar plays from the last time he was here.
"It's a lot different. But you know a lot of the things we used to do when I was here last time, coach Caloy still does so it's kinda easy for me to adapt," he said.
At the end of the day, though, what mattered most was Rain or Shine posted the much-needed victory as the E-Painters make a run to the playoffs.
"It ain't big because it's Ginebra (we beat), it could be anybody. It's big because we needed to win and we got it," he said.
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