Jamaal Franklin was prouder with the way he took care of the ball as he starred in Converge’s reclamation of the PBA Governors’ Cup lead Thursday night.
The former NBA cager tallied the first-ever triple-double in franchise history with 25 points, 13 rebounds, and 15 assists in their 112-98 rout of Rain or Shine, but was much happier with the fact that he did not commit a single turnover.
That despite an outing so impressive that also saw him submit his best game passing-wise, ultimately setting the club record for most dimes in a match.
“Stats-wise, it’s my best game passing here, but more importantly to me, I talked to Abu before the game. I was turning the ball over a lot and we’re always talking about the heart stats that people don’t have on a piece of paper. Today that was my objective, to not turn the ball over,” said the 31-year-old shortly after the match at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
“Today, I don’t know how many turnovers I have, but I know it wasn’t like the first two games,” he added as he committed a total of 11 TOs in his first two games, including six versus Magnolia.
“I’m more proud about turnovers than assists.”
While it caught a lot of people in awe, FiberXers head coach was no longer surprised, saying that it is really how his prized import plays.
“Laro talaga niya eh. It’s his game. Complete player,” offered the youthful bench tactician. “He can shoot, he can orchestrate the offense, he’s very unselfish, and he loves to crash the boards also when needed.”
That rare trip-dub of his, the first in the league since Devon Scott did as much in the last Commissioner’s Cup, enabled Converge to go 4-0 in the standings.
Still, Ayo said that they are still in the process of integrating the 10-year veteran out of San Diego State University with the FiberXers’ scheme of things, since he’s only been with the team for barely two weeks.
“We need more time to practice together and so far, ‘yun lang. We’re taking it slowly, unti-unti, gradual yung pag-present kay Jamaal ng sistema namin.
“‘Di naman ganun kabilis ‘yun. Jamaal is doing his best to cope up and he’s trying his best to fit our system,” said Ayo.
Franklin, for his part, didn’t grab all the credit as he also tipped his hat to his teammates, particularly Abu Tratter and Justin Arana, for his feat.
Thanks to him, Arana submitted a career second-best 21 points and eight rebounds while Tratter finished with 10 markers and 10 boards.
“Coach stressed that the bigs will be open today. They did a good job trying to make sure I couldn’t shoot the ball, so I just found the open pass to the offense.
“And, Coach ran plays like high-low with Justin. Justin had one hell of a game; Abu had a productive game coming in. I had 15 assists, but I can’t make assists without my teammates making shots, so credit goes to them,” he said.
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