PBA Philippine Cup

Ginebra still on top despite Maliksi scoring spree

Delfin Dioquino

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Ginebra still on top despite Maliksi scoring spree

SHARPSHOOTER. Allein Maliksi has been one of the hottest players in the Ginebra-Meralco semifinals.

Photo from PBA Images

Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone says they do not want Allein Maliksi finding his mark, but that is the price they have to pay to limit other Meralco stars offensively

Barangay Ginebra can deal with Allein Maliksi scoring in bunches as long as it beats Meralco to reach the PBA Philippine Cup finals.

Maliksi has been one of the hottest players in the best-of-five semifinals clash between the Gin Kings and the Bolts, averaging 20.3 points on a blistering 63% clip from three-point range.

Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said they do not want Maliksi finding his mark, but that is the price they have to pay to contain the other Meralco stars offensively.

“We just cannot sit on Maliksi and destroy our defense. Our team defense has to be working,” Cone said. “[W]e have to handle all the ball screens.”

“Ball screens are not just involving two defensive players, [they involve] 5 defensive players. Sometimes that fifth defensive player guarding Maliksi has to do a rotation or help, then that leaves Maliksi open.”

The Gin Kings are obviously liking the results even with Maliksi firing from all cylinders as they gained a 2-1 series lead – one win away from their first All-Filipino finals appearance since 2017.

For example, Chris Newsome and Bong Quinto shot a combined 4-of-19 from the field in the Bolts’ 84-91 Game 3 loss, while Rey Hugnatan made only 1 of his 7 field goals.

But Cone said they have to keep an eye on Maliksi moving forward as they seek to close out the series.

Maliksi erupted for 23 points in Game 3 as Meralco kept Ginebra on its feet until the final minute despite trailing by as many as 25 points early.

“We have to account for him more and more as the series goes on because he has just been lights on,” Cone said.

“We take choices on defense. You have to choose one or the other. Right now, the ball screens are crucial for us. Hopefully, we can also make an adjustment, we can be a little bit better on both.” – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!
Person, Human, Clothing

author

Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.