PBA: Hollis-Jefferson’s arrival brings better ball movement to TNT, says Jojo Lastimosa

MANILA, Philippines-TNT swapped import Jalen Hudson for former NBA veteran Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in the PBA Governors Cup conference and the change was immediately apparent.

Compared to Hudson who scored through the isolation game, Tropang Giga now has more ball movement with the arrival of Hollis-Jefferson.

Roger Pogoy, who came out with the Player of the Game honor, credited the former cager of the Korean Basketball League for waxing hot 40 points.

“He really looked for us and he really passed. I even saw how much help he tried to give me and other teammates. This is probably one of the reasons why we were able to win,” said Pogoy in Filipino after burying Blackwater, 138- 116, at the Araneta Coliseum, Wednesday.

Like the product of Far Eastern University, Hollis-Jefferson also had his own monster game, flirting with a triple-double of 37 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.

Coach Jojo Lastimosa said he was happy with what he saw from the foreign acquisition, especially in terms of his impact on the team.

“You can see Roger has more open shots from a long time ago. Rondae, that’s really one of his skills. He knows how to pass. I mean he really knows how to find players and what he has to do is beat [shots] down,” said the top coach.

“I think we expected this a little bit. Because the way we played, he attacked a lot of defense and he was very good and I think we also improved the coverage in the interior,” he added.

Overall, TNT tallied 28 assists, four more than Bossings 28.

Pogoy and Hollis-Jefferson were instrumental for TNT to retain the top seed with six wins and just one loss.

‘like a PRO’

Lastimosa said Hudson took the news of his departure from the team pretty hard.

“It was hard to part with him. He took it hard but he took it like a professional,” said Lastimosa about the former import.

Hudson dominated Tropang Giga in the top position before leaving with an average of 33.4 marks per outing.

Lastimosa, however, also confirmed that Hudson was given an offer to play basketball elsewhere.

Hollis-Jefferson’s arrival, though, came quickly. KBL and SBP cleared the papers a few hours before tip-off, asking Lastimosa to prepare his boys to play “All-Filipino” against Bossing.

But despite almost a sudden game day, Lastimosa said he will take the win for what it is with how the powerhouse team played.

“I like what I saw tonight.”

RELATED STORY

PBA: Jalen Hudson is ‘up there’ among the top imports but Justin Brownlee is still yardstick

Jalen Hudson does his job against high scorers

Read Next

For suggestions, complaints, or questions, please contact us.