MERALCO missed the services of Allein Maliksi in the second half of the game against Magnolia and coach Norman Black admitted he was at a loss on why the best shooter in his team was unable to keep his cool in such an important game.
Maliksi was thrown out at the 7:44 mark of the second quarter after being called for a flagrant foul in a battle for position against Paul Lee. The Meralco cager had already been assessed with a technical foul earlier in the game, leading to the ejection.
[READ: Black doesn't expect Almazan to play vs NLEX]
Maliksi only played for six minutes and was scoreless after missing his only attempt of the game on a two-point jumper.
Black said Maliksi’s absence left the Bolts without one of their best offensive threats in game where they were battling for survival. The Bolts ended up losing, 108-96, to stay at ninth place on a 4-6 win-loss record with two matches remaining.
“I didn’t quite understand that with Allein tonight,” said Black. “I didn’t understand why he was so upset. Basketball is a physical game. And I really didn’t see anything dirty. He’s got to be a little bit more attentive to the importance of the game and his importance to the team.”
“You can’t put himself in a position where now he is not available to us. And I think everybody knows that he is our best outside shooter. He is our best perimeter spacer. That did hurt is in the second half,” said Black.
Compounding the woes of Meralco was the injury to Raymond Almazan, who rolled his ankle in the fourth quarter and never returned. Almazan will most likely be out for the next match against NLEX on Wednesday.
Black though made it clear that Maliksi’s absence wasn’t the lone reason for the defeat as the Bolts couldn’t stop the Hotshots rampage that led to 47 points in the third quarter.
“But there’s no excuse to committing turnovers and giving up so many fastbreak points,” Black said.
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