While on his way to the SM Mall of Asia Arena for Game Two of the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals between the San Miguel Beeermen and Rain or ShineElasto Painters , Chris Ross was exchanging messages with his injured teammate Marcio Lassiter.
“Actually, while on my way to the gym, I was texting with Marcio. He was just telling me, ’Bruh, just shoot the ball, man. Trust your work and just shoot the ball’,” shared Ross, himself one of the best do-it-all guards in the PBA today.
The defensive specialist took Lassiter’s message to heart. He did shoot the ball. And he ended up having one great shooting night.
Ross nailed 10 three-pointers en route to a new career-high 34 points. He also had eight assists, three steals, and a rebound to power the Beermen in a come-from-behind 117-105 victory, which gave them a 2-0 lead in the series.
“When you get a text like that from one of the best shooters ever in the history of the league, then you do what he says. So I went out there and just shot the ball,” said Ross, who has tied Lassiter for the franchise-record of most treys in a game.
“I cannot believe, especially Chris Ross, on his shooting. I think ano eh, ‘yung spirit ni Marcio Lassiter napapunta sa kanya ngayon,” quipped San Miguel head coach Leo Austria of his prized guard.
“Siya naging shooter namin.”
Ross is now only the fifth local player in league history to hit 10 threes in a game. He joins the likes of Lassiter, Allan Caidic, Kenneth Duremdes, and third-year guard Roger Pogoy, who achieved the feat also this conference.
“Actually, Marcio texted me and said, ‘Man you should’ve gotten one more. You would’ve beat my record.’ But I’m good at just being at ten as long as we win. You know me. I don’t really care about records or stats,” Ross said.
“My goal is to help my team win. No matter if I score zero or I score 40, as long as my team wins, I’m happy for us. It’s amazing to be mentioned with those guys. This is a testament to hard work and my teammates believing in me.”
Asked if it surprised him that he had that many threes, Ross said: “I put in a lot of work in my game. It’s never surprising when results come. The biggest thing in practice is trusting the work you put in.
“Because if you put in all that work, all that extra hours, and you get to the game and don’t trust it? All those hours go to waste. So for me, it’s just trusting the work and just keep not letting a miss push me away from shooting the ball.”
Ross’ performance couldn’t have come at a better time, since he helped San Miguel claw back from a massive 29-point deficit – yes, 29 – en route to the 12-point win, which puts them on the verge of a sweep and the Finals.
But as happy as they are with the win, the 10-year league veteran hopes that they can remedy their slow starts.
“We can’t have the habit of being down [nearly] 30 points and expecting to win – especially in the playoffs. Hopefully we could fix that going into the next game, because two games in, we had two bad starts, two slow starts,” Ross said.
“Hopefully, we could fix that and not make it so hard for ourselves.”
