Chris Gavina will be making his PBA comeback when Rain or Shine begins its PBA Philippine Cup campaign against NLEX on Friday.

Gavina last coached in the PBA in 2018 when he was still calling the shots for KIA (now Terrafirma).

He returns to full PBA coaching as the successor of Caloy Garcia for Rain or Shine.

"I personally am looking forward to getting back in the trenches, and to be going up against an NLEX team led by coach Yeng makes the challenge even more exciting," said Gavina in an article on the PBA website.

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Aside from having the regulars, Gavina will be fielding rookies Leonard Santillan, Andrei Caracut, and Anton Assistio.

"I just told the guys that I know there will be a great deal of adrenaline, anxiety, and nervousness going into our game with NLEX," said Gavina.

"Even with all those outside factors, our mindset remains steadfast on controlling what we can control. We can control our discipline on both ends of the floor, we can control our effort level, and most of all how we react to adversity when it occurs."

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The game begins at 3 p.m. as the second match in a triple header on opening day.

NLEX, meanwhile, wants to rebound from a dismal finish in the bubble season.

"We want to bounce back from our previous disappointing finish and the key to doing that is to have a good start," said Guiao.

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