By REYNALD MAGALLON
The brave and tough warriors often offer praise to their opponents even after a hard-fought fight. And the semifinals series between TNT and Rain or Shine was no different.
Tropang Giga import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson tipped his hat off to the Elasto Painters after the young but feisty squad pushed his team to the limits before it managed to advance to the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup Finals in five games.
While TNT came away with a 4-1 series win, all the five contests were nip-and-tuck affairs with no team really gaining a clear cut advantage until the waning minutes.
And in the eyes of the former NBA player, that only says a lot at how tough of a team Rain or Shine is.
“We talk about physicality. We talk about toughness. They embody that. They embody it. They come and they bring that mindset every single game. And a lot of credit to them,” said Hollis-Jefferson who needed to pour 42 points just to dispatch Rain or Shine in Game 5.
But the series could have gone either way and the two-time PBA champion import admitted that ROS had forced TNT to dig deep especially after veteran guard Jayson Castro.
Even Hollis-Jefferson commended the Elasto Painters who threw everything, even the kitchen sink just to try and limit his impact to the game.
“They made me work for everything. Every time we match up against them, it’s a challenge,” added the veteran reinforcement who faced variety of defenders from hard-nosed defenders in Jhonard Clarito, Gabe Norwood and Caelan Tiongson to bigger and heftier enforcers in Keith Datu and import Deon Thompson.
“They play extremely well. They’re talented. Their coach said it. They have depth. They can go to their bench,” he added. But through the tough match against ROS, Hollis-Jefferson was just proud how his team just showed poise under the pressure.
“I think we stayed calm. We stayed poised. They were up a little bit. I think they were up 10 or 12. We just told our guys, we can come together and do this,” said Hollis-Jefferson.
“We just got to stay calm. Stay calm. We all believed in each other. Chot believed in us.And the rest was history.”
