It was tough, but the Maliksi-less Bolts emerged with the W.
Without their second best scorer, the Meralco Bolts struggled mightily against the Phoenix Fuel Masters in their PBA Governors’ Cup encounter on Sunday.
Playing without suspended Allein Maliksi, the Bolts had to weather the storm that was Phoenix from start to finish to wrap up the elimination round with a 7-4 win-loss record.
“That first half was pretty ugly. And even up to the end of the game it wasn't exactly pretty,” he said after the match at the PhilSports Arena.
Maliksi was slapped a 75K fine and a one-game suspension after an altercation with Converge FiberXers big man Barkley Ebona in the final seconds of their contest on Friday.
Hoping to stop the clock, Ebona tried to foul Maliksi but ended up inflicting a hard foul on the Meralco swingman. It didn’t sit well with Maliksi, who retaliated by grabbing Ebona by the neck.
“I told him that was unacceptable no matter what the other kid did. You can’t react that way,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.
Fortunately for the Bolts, they were able to find a way to grab this crucial victory in the face of an airtight Phoenix defense and in the absence of Maliksi.
“This is an interesting game mainly because Coach Jamike [Jarin] threw everything at us tonight. From 1-3-1 to 2-3, to switching zones, from man to zone, zone to man, he gave us just about everything we could handle tonight,” Black said.
“At first, we were having a difficult time recognizing what they're doing. We finally settled on what we could do against everything. No matter they threw at us we were just running one or 2 things which really worked for us in the third and fourth quarter.”
Black said they badly wanted to win this game so they could avoid facing either TNT Tropang Giga or San Miguel Beermen in the playoffs. But now their fate hinges on the results of the remaining games.
“We’ll have to wait and see what happens with San Miguel and NLEX [Road Warriors],” he said.