2014 FIBA World Cup: Croatia (16) vs Philippines (34) IR

First and foremost, MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS!

What. A. Game.

After trailing by as much as 15 points in the 1st quarter and a half, Gilas made a game off their debut against one of Europe's finest in Croatia thanks to the efforts of naturalised centre Andray Blatche and the (surprisingly) 4th point guard in the rotation, captain Jimmy Alapag. True enough, Gilas found itself flat-footed early, unable to make shots versus the taller Croatians and pretty much jittery on the floor. Blatche was left to go isolation, much like he did the entire pre-FIBA tune-up campaign for Gilas, which wasn't bad since he was the only guy who could get buckets for us, but wasn't good either because it was messing up our spacing and dribble drive game plan.

If anything, this game can be summed up as Croatia probably taking us for granted early, and the proud men of Gilas just playing with all heart and effort. We caught them off-guard, being one of the virtual unknowns in the tournament and were fortunate enough to have been able to make shots in the end to force over time and salvage a respectable 81-78 loss.

Here's an amateur's take on the positives and negatives that we can learn from the game against Croatia:

Positive:
- Andray Blatche is versatile. He's clearly a walking mismatch at 6"11, with the hybrid forwards of Croatia unable to keep in step owing to Blatche's speed and ball handling skills (which is quite exceptional really and something we never saw in the NBA). Though Blatche is not a force in the paint, he makes up for his big man shortcomings by playing like a little man on the court. He helps spread the floor for our shooters, can drive to the hoop when he wants and has no problems whatsoever in taking (and making treys). Truth be told, Blatche helps our cause in making the game faster-- which gives us more attempts down the floor.

- Jimmy Alapag still has it. The BEST POINT GUARD IN THE PHILIPPINES is still the one time PBA MVP. Case closed. Not even close. Tenorio over dribbled. Paul Lee tried but excelled more in playing like a combo guard. Jayson Castro was lost out there. We were lost out there. Blatche was becoming trigger happy win, lose or draw. Then came Alapag. And Gilas finally calmed down and executed the game plan.

- Marc Pingris is going to be just fine against guys four to five inches taller than him. Did you see him out there? Scattering garbage points versus the taller Croatians? Effort. Pride. Fight. Will. PUSO.

- Junemar Fajardo is learning to throw his weight around even more. The reigning PBA MVP wasn't going to stand around and watch his team and the Croatians have all the fun. The 6"9 Cebuano provided huge minutes when Blatche was out and more than held his own in the paint. The time he spent paired with Blatche was golden as he worked excellently without the ball-- probably taking up pointers for DOTA buddy Pingris.

- Jeffrei Chan is going to be ok. Slow start, but he'll make his shots eventually. Just needs to move without the basketball instead of waiting for a pass from top.

Negative:
- Japeth Aguilar. Against the Croatian bigs, we expected Aguilar to run around and cause havoc Calvin Abueva style-- being faster and more athletic. At least, that's the idea. But Aguilar reverted back to his hesitant, not knowing where to go self. Often looking at his point guard (Tenorio) to create for him rather than just going to his spots and make something happen. Hopefully, Aguilar was just nervous and will be able to bounce back in the next game.

- Iso-Blatche. That was painful early. But it was also all that we had going for us since Gilas was busy standing around and apparently in awe of their taller, world class competition. Today, we almost won with it. But we can't keep relying on Blatche much like SMART Gilas I did on Douthit during the, what we'd like to call, "Baby Gilas" days.

- How many point guards did we bring again? Because quite frankly, they were all shamed by their senior Alapag who many felt should've been cut from the final roster for a bigger shooter. Tenorio was caught over dribbling at times, not knowing what to do with the basketball when Croatia's bigger point guards were fronting him. Jayson Castro couldn't blitz his way into the paint. Paul Lee had the right idea by barreling into the paint, but was being exposed defensively against Croatian screens (which has always been a problem with Lee).

- Ranidel de Ocampo, for this game, looked and felt like Danny Ildefonso did the one time he suited up for the national team and was asked to play small forward. Painful.

- Lack of baseline movement. Chan would've been a lot more open if they designed a couple of Reggie Miller-like plays for him wherein he'd drag his defender to the baseline end to end for the easy screens and eventual open shot. A bulk of our offence came solely from up top and either side of the wing, none from the nearest spot on the three point line or anything baseline. We don't have a legit post up presence or option, so the least we could do is generate something off that area on the floor.

Going into our next match versus Greece, we hope to see a more aggressive Gilas from the opening. Aguilar needs to assert himself and not be afraid of fouling out or making mistakes. The more he over thinks the game, the sillier he turns out to be (thus the benching). Another guy we'd love to see look for his offence some more is Gabe Norwood. We get that he's the resident stopper on the line up, but he deferred so much on the offensive side that guys started sagging off him and when he did try to get going, he couldn't find any rhythm because it was already too late. Where the hell is Gilas Gabe?

And we are counting on one Gary David to play against Greece and shoot the damn ball or die trying.  Great effort versus Croatia, learn from the lapses and move on. We only need two wins (easier said than done) to advance to the next phase. We can do it.

#LabanPilipinas