Jalen Hudson aced yet another test in powering TNT to a streak-busting win over Converge in Wednesday’s PBA Governors’ Cup action.
The 26-year-old was challenged by no less than head coach Jojo Lastimosa to hike his shooting percentage after shooting just 40.2 in their first four games, and went on to leave his mentor impressed with the way he responded.
He shot 67-percent, and finished with a career-high 56 points alongside 10 rebounds and four assists as the Tropang Giga won, 128-122.
“Because I know what he’s capable of doing,” said Lastimosa when asked why he issued the objective to Hudson. “He’s as quick as anybody here in the league. He’s athletic. If he goes past that main guy, I don’t care who’s in there.
“There is no 7-footer in this league to stop him. So I told him, ‘Hey, I think you can finish better if you’re not in a hurry.’ And that is what he did the whole night. He didn’t change his game. He was still attacking,” he added.
“He was attacking in the first four games. But now, I think he has a better sense or idea of not to be in a hurry because there are no 7-footers to bother his shot.”
Hudson’s 56 points, according to PBA stats chief Fidel Mangonon III, is the most in the league since Shabazz Muhammad’s 57 in San Miguel’s 115-110 win over Meralco in last season’s Governors’ Cup back on March 5 of last year.
Furthermore, it is the most in TNT history in 22 years, or since Jerod Ward scored 61 in his PBA debut at the Philsports Arena for Mobiline in a 93-87 victory over Ginebra in the 2001 Commissioner’s Cup eliminations.
To think that he had never scored that many points in the professional ranks before Wednesday makes it all the more impressive.
“In summer league games, like exhibition games and stuff like that before. I’ve always kinda been known as a scorer,” he said.
“This is my first time professionally. Obviously, it was a fast-paced game tonight, which kinda led to it. But I’ve never scored 56 before.”
As notable as his outing was, Hudson still made it a point to shine the light on the Tropang Giga locals for making the victory possible.
Four players aside from him finished in twin digits. Mikey Williams made 19 points, 11 of which he made in the final period.
Roger Pogoy had 18, while Paul Varilla proved to be the ‘magic bunot’ of Lastimosa as he made 12 markers. Jayson Castro added 10.
“I thought everybody played really well,” Hudson said. “I’ve been telling the guys, for like the last few games, we haven’t all played well together. I feel like tonight was one of the best times that we all played together.
“I won’t even look at the stat sheet. If you watched the game, everybody made huge plays. Huge, huge plays. I thought Paul was outstanding tonight defensively, offensively, hitting the open shot, boxing out, being physical.
“I thought he was amazing tonight,” he added. “Every night it’s been a different guy, so I’m just excited to see where we can take this thing.”
After such a performance, Lastimosa has now become even more excited about how Hudson could grow into a more all-around player moving forward.
“Imports now are so skilled. Jalen is one of those imports that is very athletic. The only thing that I’m looking for Jalen right now is to be a little bit more all-around, get the other guys involved. And he’s eventually gonna figure it out.”
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
