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Raymond Almazan has finally been able to put on the suit and play for the Meralco Bolts since injuring his knee in the PBA Governor’s Cup Finals last January, a development that Bolts coach Norman Black likes.
Almazan, who was still in therapy shortly before the start of the bubble, missed the team’s first game, a 116-98 loss to the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters on October 14.
In just 10 minutes of action, the center managed to add five points and five rebounds in the conquest of the Aces 93-81 on Wednesday night.
“Having him back is a huge confidence boost for the team. It gives us size, it gives us athletic prowess within the paint,” Black told reporters in the postgame interview.
Black added that Almazan could very well be the answer to Meralco’s disappointing outings in the Philippine Cup, but emphasized that the 6’7 slot man has a minute restriction as he works to come back from injury.
“He has a time restriction on how long he can play, we can only play with him for 10 minutes. We can match pretty much any team in the league in size when he’s there,” explained the coach.
Even though Almazan could barely see playing time, he is expected to play longer when he tries to defend jumper Japeth Aguilar in the Bolts’ matchup against Barangay Geneva on Sunday (6:45 pm on TV5, One Sports and PBA Rush) .
Black also expressed his relief that his team recorded a victory at this early juncture in the tournament.
“I think it takes a bit of pressure from the players to get into the win column and it also gives us a lot of confidence heading into Sunday’s game against Geneva,” Black explained.
“It was really nice to see the guys play defense tonight as opposed to a couple days ago against Phoenix where we played practically without defense. Tonight, we really focused on what we felt was our identity, which is to defend.” , He said. additional.
