Chris Ross: San Miguel the ‘underdogs’ against TNT, is ready for tough series

For a powerhouse franchise like the San Miguel Beermen, the team had to take an unusual path to make it to the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals.

And that being said, playmaker Chris Ross believes their side should be considered the “underdogs” in their upcoming 7-game series against the league-leading TNT KaTropa.

“They’re the number one team in the league, they never lost three times, we got our hands full,” said Ross after San Miguel’s 98-95 Game 4 win over Rain or Shine.

“I think we are the underdogs, missing Marcio (Lassiter) will hurt, but I trust and have faith in the guys in the locker room, some will step up and get the job done.”

Ross, though scoreless, padded the stat sheets with 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals, contributing a lot to the Beermen.

Now facing an even tougher club in the championship round, Ross took time to give credit first to the toughness of the franchise in times of adversity, before proceeding to say the Beermen are ready for the KaTropa.

“That just shows the type of character we have, those guys with the jersey, the coaching staff, the bosses. We’re so resilient, we’ve been in every situation we can think of. I think this is the first time we were in a twice to beat and we overcame that,” he shared.

“That’s another check on the list for us. We battle, man. We had a lot of challenge this conference. Credit to our team and coaching staff for not giving up. We’re going to right the ship.”

The Beermen last faced the KaTropa in 2017, winning the Commissioner’s Cup crown, 4-2 behind Charles Rhodes as import. They will now have a chance to repeat over the TNT side, but everyone recognizes it will be an even more difficult feat to accomplish.

“The whole conference we were playing catch-up. We won Game 1 and now we were finally ahead again in the conference. Now it’s square zero, and it’s going to be a tough seven-game series. We know we have our hands full and we are ready for the challenge,” said Ross.