MANILA, Philippines — Behind Charles Rhodes’ steady hand and Marcio Lassiter’s late-second heroics in San Miguel’s Game Three win on Wednesday night was Chris Ross’ third-quarter takeover.
Ross finished the game with 27 points, eight assists, eight rebounds, three swipes and a swat in the affair that saw the Beermen take a 2-1 series lead.
But according to the back-to-back Finals MVP, his showing was sort of an unconscious one.
“It’s just something about the playoffs for me, man,” Ross told the press. “When you’re in a must-win situation, the best comes out. So I knew today, being in a best-of-five, 1-1, it’s a big game for us.”
“I just wanted to go out there and give us a chance to win and be aggressive,” he added.
But his all-around game wasn’t one that met little resistance. Ross went on to laud the Hotshots’ backcourt.
“[Jio Jalalon] is a tough defender,” he said. “All those guys—they’ve got so many guys that give you so many different looks. You never really know what you’re going to do,” he said.
“Like (Justin) Melton, he’s a bit different than Jio, who is different than Mark (Barroca); Mark’s a bit different than Paul (Lee). Then they got (Allein) Maliksi,” Ross explained. “It’s always different when you play against Star cause they match you up with different guys.”
“They got a lot of guards that can bring in, pick you up full court, try to wear you down,” he offered. But that’s not something he and the back-to-back-to-back Philippine Cup champions have no answer for.
“We work hard in the offseason. We work hard during the season—to condition our bodies to withstand playing long minutes and being pressured by those other guys,” he closed.
San Miguel will again stake their conditioning and their might against a bid by Star to extend the series this Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
