ALLEIN Maliksi continued to pick up his game offensively at the most important time of Meralco’s campaign in the PBA Season 46 Governors’ Cup finals.
Allein Maliksi on Game 1 win
Maliksi had his second straight 20-point outing on Wednesday, finishing with 22 points to lift Meralco to a 104-91 win over Barangay Ginebra in Game One. The former University of Santo Tomas standout had 24 points in the knockout semifinal match against Magnolia, making up for his struggles during a huge part of the playoffs where he was limited to single digits in a couple of games.
Prior to Game Five of the semifinals, Maliksi was only averaging 7.2 points, a far cry from his numbers during the eliminations where he had 16.5 points a contest.
Maliksi admitted the number of touches he has been receiving played a huge part in the return to his old ways offensively.
“Sa semis kasi nung Magnolia, talagang nag-stay home sa akin, meron silang defensive schemes. I’m just letting and trusting my teammates na, ‘Sige, kung dadating sa akin, hindi ko na hahanapin, hindi ko pipilitin.’ ‘Yung Ginebra, team defense din sila and they have a game plan. Napapansin ko kung ano ‘yung binibigay nila sa akin.
“Ang difference doon sa nag-struggle ako and sa past two games is I’m getting more touches at nagki-create ‘yung mga kasama ko sa akin. Naa-appreciate ko lahat ‘yun. More opportunities nakukuha ko,” said Maliksi.
The effect on his play with the additional touches is that Maliksi gets a good feel of the game.
“If you are touching the ball, nafi-feel mo ‘yung game. Pero ‘yung tipong ang tagal mo na, akyat baba ka lang, waiting ka lang na makatanggap and then ititira mo lang biglaan, ang hirap. Hindi mo nafifeel ‘yung bola. Maganda ‘yung pasensya namin. ‘Yung pinaghirapan namin sa practice at sa offseason, nagpe-payoff. Sana magtuloy tuloy,” said the 34-year-old Maliksi.
The performance, however, isn’t enough for Maliksi and the rest of the Bolts to celebrate this early as they know the capability of the Kings to come back.
“It’s just one game. We haven’t achieved anything yet. It’s just one quarter lang kumbaga sa championship series na ‘to. We are not celebrating this win. Ang goal namin is maka-champion this series and I’m happy for our game and performance tonight. Focus kami sa Game Two after this one.”
“Focus lang talaga kami sa depensa namin and sa offense naman, creating for each other lang talaga at tulong-tulong lang kami kung ano ibigay ng depensa,” said the 6-foot-4 shooting guard.