IT’S now Meralco’s turn to expect a ruggedly aggressive Barangay Ginebra San Miguel side to show up in Game 4 on Wednesday night when the Gin Kings hope to level the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup best-of-seven Finals series.
The Bolts are back in the driver’s seat of the series that has turned into a seesaw battle so far. Meralco won Game 1, 104-91, lost Game 2, 93-99, when the Gin Kings were in their toughest elements, and took Game 3, 83-74, on Sunday night when the Bolts took control in the decisive final quarter.
The series go back to the Smart Araneta Coliseum for the 6 p.m. Game 4 which nine-year veteran Allein Maliksi, who’s also having a pendulum performance in the duel, expecting an Ginebra machine getting full throttle behind its legions of fans growing even wilder.
“Game 4? I think they’re going to be aggressive and come out with a plan,,” the 6-foot-4 wingman with a lethal shot from the outside said. “So all we can do is read them in the first half and come out with a great adjustment in the second [half].”
And just like almost everybody else, Maliksi has his finger pointing toward Ginebra’s reliable reinforcement Justine Brownlee.
“JB [Justin Brownlee] is always a mismatch to everyone—he can take you outside and inside,” said Maliksi, who averaged 10.6 points in the first three games of the series. “You can’t stop him but you can slow him down.”
Slow Brownlee down the Bolts did in Game 3 where the import made 11 points in the first quarter, but was held to only eight points in the next three quarters. He redeemed his poor shooting though with 15 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks.
Meralco set the tone for its Game 3 victory with its solid defense in the second half. Its import, Tony Bishop, was almost a pole over and above Brownlee and finished with 30 points and 16 rebounds with Chris Newsom adding 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Meralco is chasing for its first franchise title since 2010 after three Finals heartbreaks all against Ginebra squad. Maliksi, dad to two-year-old Kayden and one-year-old KyRuss, on the other hand, is going for his fifth league title.
Maliksi, whose wife Kaye works as business development manager, has won four titles all under Tim Cone—first when San Mig Coffee [now Magnolia] won the 2013 Governors’ Cup and the next three when the same team booked a grand slam in the next season.
Cone, meanwhile, won’t allow the Gin Kings to go two games down in the series.
“We’re hoping the extra day between games allows us to get over the disappointment, and we can get our focus on Game 4,” Cone said. “Needless to say, we don’t want to fall too deep into a hole. It’s a must-win.”