Meralco coach Norman Black is hoping to get Allein Maliksi back in the groove after laying a dud in Game 2 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.

Maliksi couldn’t follow up his 22-point outing in the series opener as he failed to score during the Bolts’ 99-93 win Friday, April 8 that forced a 1-1 tie in the best-of-seven series.

Black vowed to find ways for Maliksi to regain his form, like he did in the semifinals when his 24 points in the deciding fifth game enabled Meralco to beat Magnolia Pambansang Manok.

“We’ll figure it out. We’ll get him going again,” Black said. “We had that same problem against Magnolia, but we figured it out. So, we’ll figure it out against Ginebra too. We’ll find out what defense they’ll use against him.”

The Meralco swingman missed all seven shots from the field against a Ginebra defense that made significant adjustments after Meralco took Game 1 with a 104-91 win last Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With Maliksi struggling, the Bolts trailed by double figures for most of the way, the highest came at 20 early in the third period.

“We weren’t able to give him good looks,” rued Black. “A lot of his shots were forced with guys in his face. In addition to that, they went big so it became more difficult because of the matchups on the other end of the court.

“A lot of times, he was stuck with Scottie Thompson which for us is not a great matchup for Allein. We’d rather see him with Jeff Chan or some of the other guys out there.”

Meralco did make a comeback anchored by Aaron Black, even pulling within two on a couple of occasions before Ginebra was able to make key plays when it mattered.

It was the first time Maliksi went scoreless in a game this conference, but the veteran shooter will be aching to bounce back in Sunday’s Game 3, still at MOA Arena.