Jamie Malonzo committed a turnover down the stretch, but that did not affect his play as Ginebra and Magnolia commenced their highly-awaited PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinal battle on Wednesday night.
The sophomore winger has leader LA Tenorio to thank for it. His ‘kuya’ was there to make sure he kept his head up even after losing the ball to Jio Jalalon with 27.5 seconds left, and with the Kings hanging on to a three-point lead.
“He’s telling me that, ‘It’s alright. Next play.’ We can’t have our heads down in moments like that. We just gotta keep going forward. It’s pretty much all he was saying,” said Malonzo of what the distinguished guard was telling him.
Focus on the next play he did, much to the delight of his crew. Malonzo more than made up for that blunder by coming through on defense, which saw him stay in front of Paul Lee and prevent the star guard from doing his thing.
Lee instead handed it off to Mark Barroca, who tried his luck for a long shot but missed. Christian Standhardinger then came through afterwards by ensuring that the ball wouldn’t go to their foes, and the Kings escaped, 87-84.
That saw Malonzo’s efforts preserved, as he shined with a playoff career-high 21 points and 12 rebounds with three steals in 37 minutes.
It was his first Manila Clasico playoff experience, and the former De La Salle product indeed proved that a bigger stage hardly frightens him, all thanks to having veterans and mentors around him keeping him composed.
“I think we have vets, we have great coaches that are non-stop on young players like myself,” he offered after the game at the Philsports Arena. “Coach [Tim Cone] says all the time that we can’t be too high or too low in moments like these.
“With a good team like that, they played a hell of a game without an import, especially late game. With a team like that, we knew we didn’t have it easy and we had to play ’til the very last seconds of the game.
“I got to credit my players and my coaches for keeping me level-headed during these moments,” added the 26-year-old from Seattle.
The stakes have definitely gotten higher but Malonzo is just trying to relish the experience of being part of a rivalry as storied as the Clasico.
“It’s definitely exciting,” he expressed. “As a player, you want to be in an atmosphere like this. This is what you’ve dreamed of as a player.
“So now that I’m here, I’m sort of, you know, trying to collect these wins and adapt to what’s going on and trying to learn as quickly as possible so we can be better forward,” added the third overall pick of the 2021 Rookie Draft.
“I definitely don’t try to think about it, but it’s definitely a fun environment — the Filipino fans, and everything going on in this. I’m just looking forward to the next game. Next game for sure.”
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
