TNT head coach Chot Reyes allayed concerns over a serious injury after Rondae Hollis-Jefferson sat out their eventual win over NorthPort on Sunday.
The veteran mentor said that it was simply the coaches’ decision to let the reigning Best Import take the day off to “rest up” his banged-up ankle entering the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup quarterfinals, which starts on Wednesday.
“If you will notice, we already managed his minutes in the last game. But after that game, we decided to completely rest up his ankle,” he said during the postgame presser of their 99-79 victory at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Reyes was referring to their meeting with Terrafirma last September 19, which ended in a stunning 72-84 loss to the also-ran crew,
Hollis-Jefferson still led the way for the Tropang Giga in that match with 25 points and 11 rebounds but in only 31 minutes of action – a far cry from his usual 44-minute average playing time in the games prior.
But Sunday’s game no longer had any bearing since they’d already locked up the top seed in Group A, so the brain thrust deemed it best to rest him.
They weren’t at a disadvantage against the Batang Pier as well, since their eliminated foes chose to play the final two games of their conference with an all-local unit as they no longer searched for Venky Jois’ replacement.
Reyes said that RHJ should be fine come playoff time.
“He should be OK. I think ganun naman sa playoffs eh, everyone naman meron ng iniinda,” he said.
“You know, little bits of aches and pains here and there. That’s why we wanted to make sure that we’re as close to a hundred percent as possible,” he furthered.
“But hopefully, Rondae should be OK for the playoffs.”
With Hollis-Jefferson’s status hardly a concern, what the entire TNT side will be focusing on in the coming days is preparing for the best-of-five quarterfinals, where they will be battling the fourth seed of Group B.
As it stands, NLEX and Blackwater are tied for the said spot with similar 4-5 records. The two will try to break the deadlock through their upcoming games against Barangay Ginebra and Rain or Shine, respectively.
But whoever they face, the decorated bench tactician is wary as both squads impose different problems for the defending conference champions.
“Both teams will give us a lot of problems eh. ‘Yung NLEX, may Berto [Bolick]. ‘Yung Blackwater, meron namang [Sedrick] Barefield. Both imports are very good, DeQuan Jones and George King,” he said.
“We just have to be as prepared as possible, take advantage of these next two days to prepare a game plan that is going to make us as ready as possible for whoever it is that we face,” the 60-year-old Reyes continued.
“I’ve been around this game a long time for me to not have any preference, not to choose anyone, just to make sure that our team is ready.”
