Rondae Hollis-Jefferson looked plenty good in the TNT Tropang 5G’s 92-70 shellacking of the Magnolia Hotshots in Game 1 of their PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals series on Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo. He finished with 26 points on top of 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals, and led a fierce third-quarter storm that gave the Tropa complete control and seemed to deflate the Hotshots at the same time.
Put simply, Hollis-Jefferson looked like the three-time Best Import PBA fans have come to love. And, postgame, he credited TNT coach Chot Reyes for getting him ready for the playoff grind.
“It feels good to be back. I’m a big reflector, and I was a little bit thrown off by my last game playing 51 minutes. But as I was in the house watching film and just thinking about the game, it dawned on me that Chot knows how much I want to win,” RHJ told reporters. “Not only does he know how high of a standard I hold myself to, he holds me to a high standard as well. So I feel like he was doing that to get me ready for the playoffs.”
“That” in this case is Reyes playing Hollis-Jefferson 51 minutes in TNT’s last game of the eliminations, a 114-112 loss to the Converge FiberXers with major seeding implications. It was only RHJ’s second game back from injury, and yet Reyes put him out there for pretty much the entire game against a team full of talented thoroughbreds.
Hollis-Jefferson Vows He’ll Be Better
Now, the bad news for Magnolia: If Hollis-Jefferson was good in Game 1, he expects to be even better in Game 2 and moving forward.
“I think every game that I play I’ll continue to get better. My wind will increase and my production will only get better,” the three-time PBA champ added. “So I want to give credit to him [Chot Reyes], and not only to him but to myself for working extremely hard.”
Incidentally, that hard work has been RHJ’s MO throughout his entire career, and he is trusting the hours upon hours of work to show on the court.
“The mindset is always the same… I’m playing for everyone you don’t see. And that helps me continue to give my all, to continue to put in the work. The unseen hours that you guys don’t see, that’s my mindset,” he pointed out. “So the game part of it, basketball takes care of itself. If you treat the game well and you do the right thing, basketball will take care of itself…”
RHJ is right. The basketball part took care of itself on Sunday, and now TNT is up 1-0 against a formidable adversary. On Wednesday, they go again.
Expect Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to be hard at work already in preparation for it.
