4 takeaways from Team Philippines' win over Kazakhstan

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines opened its 2018 Asian Games account with a huge 96-59 win over Kazakhstan. In what was a must-win game in order to improve the chances of advancing to the next round, Team Philippines responded with a great effort on both ends of the court that blew away the cold-shooting Kazakhs.

Here are four things we can glean from that match:

Rain or Shine’s chemistry greatly helped in the game

Getting the core of the Rain or Shine team was a great idea, and it was obvious because many of them knew their spots on the court. I liked the recognition of players for one another — Chris Tiu finding James Yap, looking for an open Gabe Norwood in the corner.

We need to keep attacking that interior

Outside Stanley Pringle, Maverick Ahanmisi and Christian Standhardinger, we need to keep attacking that interior. 

I noticed that Pringle, one of the few non-RoS players on the team, would often attack the basket as he is known to do. He set the tone early. Maybe it was first-game jitters on the big stage, but he’ll get better with his kickouts to his teammates as during the game, there were instances when he’d drive into a crowd and sometimes lose the ball.

Attacking that interior means wreaking havoc on the opposing team’s rotation when they pick up fouls and it puts us on the free throw line.

The Kazakhs tried to use their height advantage by going inside. Now if the defense collapses, they kick the ball out. We were lucky too that the Kazakhs shot bricks (5-28 from 3-point range). But before they got blown away, they were going to the free throw line a lot. Kazakhstan shot 31 free throws to our 24. 

Now, having Jordan Clarkson in the lineup will help. While he shoots a lot from the outside, he can also get to the rim with that quick first step.

We played great defense

Kazakhstan shot 41 percent from two-point range. But much of that came inside and a bit too late. The Philippines, on the other hand, shot 59 percent from that same distance.

The Philippines pilfered the ball 16 times to their 6. We had 3 blocks (they didn’t register any). And we forced 26 turnovers to our paltry nine. Those are very good numbers.

Our bigs have to watch their fouls

Early in the game, we saw our bigs — JP Erram, Beau Belga and Raymond Almazan pick up two quick fouls each. 

I’ll give Erram a pass as it was his first game on the senior national team, but Almazan and Belga have to watch it. A lot of unnecessary stuff going on as well. We will need to conserve our fouls as we face a tall China team.