AFTER missing the first two games of the season, Jared Dillinger finally debuted as the Meralco Bolts took on the Alaska Aces, Wednesday night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Although not yet 100% healthy, Dillinger wanted to play against the Aces as he knew they would be in for a tough match, specially without Ranidel De Ocampo and Cliff Hodge.
"My hamstring is still weak. I've been practicing for the last three or four days but it's been limited. I had one full practice during the last day where I really tried to push it," Dillinger said. "Everyone's injured, everyone's hurt so you can complain about that."
Dillinger only scored 8 points in their 103-98 loss to Alaska. He was limited to only 22 minutes on the floor as he was in foul trouble for much of the contest.
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"It was a little frustrating. We need to get used to the way the referees are calling the games. We need to adjust to them," Dillinger said.
"Hats off to Alaska because that's the way they play. They like to hit and bump and press and at the end of the day they got into us."
Dillinger said that the Bolts missed the services of Cliff Hodge against Alaska as his aggressive physical play was tailor-made for that game.
"I keep begging Cliff to hurry up and come back. I just want to shoot threes," Dillinger said. "I'm trying to (assume his role) but it's not working out. I'm getting too old for that because I don't want to be that guy. I want to go back to shooting 10 threes a game," he added in jest.(Carlo Pamintuan)
