Rain or Shine stakes its perfect record while Barangay Ginebra guns for win No. 2 against their foes who are both parading new imports in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Friday, Aug. 30.

The Elasto Painters (3-0) hope to extend their winning run to four when they clash against the Phoenix Fuel Masters (0-2) in the opening game at 5 p.m. before the Kings face up against the still winless Blackwater Bossing in the main event at 7:30 p.m.

The Fuel Masters and the Bossing are the only teams without a victory in the Group B standings and they hope the import change could finally turn their fortunes around.

Phoenix has tapped the services of Le’Bryan Nash in lieu of Jayveous McKinnis who has visibly struggled to find his footing through the team’s first two losses. The Fuel Masters, in their two defeats, showed great resilience after battling back from huge deficits only to fall short in the end.

The seemingly lack of offensive output from their reinforcement is what head coach Jamike Jarin hopes to address in getting Nash who, during his stint in the Indonesia Basketball League, has proven to be a potent scorer with 21.9 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game.

He, however, is set to have a baptism of fire against Aaron Fuller who is coming off another solid showing of 21 points and 20 rebounds in ROS’ 124-105 rout of NLEX.

The Elasto Painters was not also about Fuller alone as the Fuel Masters should find a way to put a stop the likes of Jhonard Clarito, Gian Mamuyac, Andrei Caracut and rookies Felix Lemetti and Caelan Tiongson, who have been providing good numbers for head coach Yeng Guiao.

In a similar situation as well is Blackwater new import George King who will immediately be pitted against the barometer of all PBA imports in Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee.

The Kings resident import, for one, is fresh off dropping a career-high 51 points in Ginebra’s 108-102 victory over favorites San Miguel Beermen.

Of course, that is on top of the pressure for King who is now tasked to pump some life to Blackwater’s campaign after a flat 0-3 start to the conference, largely due to the subpar showing of the Bossing first import choice Ricky Ledo.

An interesting sidelight to the Ginebra-Blackwater clash is the matchup between the top picks of this year’s rookie draft as Blackwater’s No.2 pick Sedrick Barefield faces up against Ginebra’s No.3 pick RJ Abarrientos.