Before their huge win over Hong Kong Eastern on Sunday, things hadn’t exactly been turning up roses for the Meralco Bolts. Key locals—Allein Maliksi, Chris Banchero, and Raymond Almazan, among others—were getting injured left and right. Standout import Akil Mitchell broke his nose early in the conference and missed some games. The team lost back-to-back after winning their first three assignments.
One of those losses was particularly humbling for Meralco: a 110-94 Christmas Day blowout courtesy of the red-hot Converge FiberXers.
Mitchell, who came back just in time for that rout against Converge took that loss particularly hard. He even admitted after Meralco’s win over Eastern that he and his Bolts teammates talked about the loss for quite a bit. Then, they moved on.
Mitchell Keeping Things in Perspective
Mitchell, menacing on the court but humble and amiable off it, is just staying even-keeled and keeping things in perspective through it all—a broken nose and bad losses notwithstanding.
“We’ve been talking about it, we had a little break for Christmas, which was nice. It’s always real good to have family, my girlfriend had some strong words for me, and then after that, we relaxed a little bit. It’s nice to spend time with family to take your mind off the game,” said Mitchell in the postgame interview after Meralco’s win against Eastern. “It’s easy for us to think it’s the end-all, be-all, but family’s more important. There are so many things in life that are more important. After we came back, it was easy. You take gratitude in the ups and downs and then you come back and get to work. There’s no time to hang our heads now.”
Indeed, the Bolts can’t get too high in wins or get too low in losses—not with their final four games shaping up to be a gauntlet: TNT Tropang Giga later tonight, NLEX Road Warriors on January 10, San Miguel Beermen on January 18, and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on January 29.
“We’re into it,” Mitchell vowed. “There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves, no time to look around to think about what we need to do. We just got to put action to our words.”
