ALLEIN Maliksi buried his frustrations over his dismal Philippine Cup campaign in long hours working on his shot during the offseason. And on Sunday, the hard work paid off in the form of a record-tying shooting display.
Maliksi was on target from beyond the arc, hitting all six shots from the three-point territory and tying a PBA record for most triples in a game without a miss previously done by Glen Capacio, Dondon Hontiveros, Vic Pablo, and Ren-ren Ritualo, to give the Star Hotshots a confidence-building 96-88 win over defending champion Tropang TNT in the Commissioner's Cup.
The former PBA D-League MVP ended up with a career-high 29 points to help Star resurrect its playoff hopes in the import-laden conference.
Maliksi's hot-shooting effort earned him his first Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week nod, beating the likes of Ginebra's LA Tenorio, Japeth Aguilar and Greg Slaughter, Alaska forward Vic Manuel, as well as San Miguel slotman June Mar Fajardo for the citation.
Star rookie coach Jason Webb attested to the 6-foot-3 wingman's hard work.
"The guy is really working hard, being the last one to leave the gym," said Webb in commending his emerging small forward.
At 2-4, Star still has a lot of catching up to do, but Webb believes they are already discovering the right mix as far as the team's lineup rotation is concerned.
"The good thing about this is, Allein is now coming off the bench, while James (Yap) is back as a starter and his natural position," he said.
"And you can see he's playing much better," Webb added.