Great while it lasted

In the meeting between two unbeaten teams where a Final Four spot is at stake in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup, expectations were high that our Gilas, with the injured June Mar Fajardo, Christian Standhardinger and Calvin Abueva cleared to play, will put up a good fight against Korea.  And fight we did during the opening half when Terrence Romeo exploded for 22 points in the second quarter, including 6 triples.  And that’s about it.

We had silver medal finishes during the last two stagings of this tournament and this loss sent us out of medal contention.  This time, we try to salvage fifth place and that is assuming we will prevail in all our remaining assignments.

In a coaching decision that only coach Chot Reyes can explain, we opted for small ball.  Maybe hoping to outrun the bigger Koreans?  It turned out that not only were they bigger, most of the time they were speedier than our backcourt guys and often had them covered in transition.

The Koreans played basic basketball compared to what we’re used to – individual razzle-dazzle moves that mainly relies on tsamba.  Their screen-and-rolls and drive-and-drops caught us flatfooted and, amazingly, almost all of their players can shoot from way, way out.  Yes, even their big men.  Ball movement was beautiful that resulted in 34 assists, most of them finding wide open shooters.  Even Coach Chot looked amazed at what was unfolding before his eyes.

Of the 21 attempts from beyond, the Koreans converted 16.  We made 11 of 25 attempts, which is a high percentage (44%) but it pales in comparison to the staggering 76% of threes made by Korea.  Five of their players scored in double figures, six of them had nine points each.

Whatever happened to Gabe Norwood, Raymond Almazan and Matthew Wright?  These guys can defend but Coach Chot forgot about them.  The easy pick-and-rolls, the drive-and-drops and some above-the rim conversions are sickening to watch with just token resistance and it killed us.  The Korean demolition job started in the third quarter and since Romeo was sizzling and Jayson Castro was doing well, they should have been playing major minutes in that quarter. 

Understandably, the just recovered June Mar was tentative in his movement and was only good for two points.  Standhardinger was in double digits but several times he was called for silly fouls and whenever he and Japeth Aguilar tried to operate inside, two or three Koreans collapses on them.  I was expecting for Calvin Abueva to do his own version of demolition but thankfully, we were denied of the spectacle. 

Lessons learned?  No, we never learn or we refuse to learn.  Because we insist on playing basketball despite the vertical limitations, premium must be on outside shooting.  Plays will be ineffective if the enemy is precision firing at will and undersized bigs get caught napping on the defensive end.  We probably need three things to improve – really big bigs who can defend, shooters who can go mano-a-mano with the Koreans and perhaps Tab Baldwin.

For three games, Gilas flew the skies of China, Iraq and Qatar.  They strayed into Korean airspace, had their wings clipped and crashed back to earth.  Puso refused to beat 32 times.  Ang manok ng bayan contacted bird flu.  Chooks-to-go is choked-to-stop.  But all in all, the Lebanon campaign was great while it lasted.

And yes, with plots unmovingly dragging for five days, K-dramas are better than Wildflower and Probinsyano combined. 

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Feel The Game is praying for the speedy recovery of SHS-Ateneo’s Andrew Velasco.  Life is full of difficulties and challenges.  Yes, this is painfully hard but everything is according to God’s plan.  I wish you well, Andrew.