A time to believe

"May nag-text, si Junemar."
(Photo credit to FIBA.com)

You'll have to forgive me for being unable to provide post-game, couch potato analysis of Gilas 3's initial three games into the FIBA Asia tournament currently being held in some half-empty gym somewhere in China. This proud OFW was on a much-needed, first-ever annual vacation leave (to Manila) and spent most of his (days and) nights shopping, eating pork and or keeping in step with the #AlDub phenomena.

Rest assured however that we were still able to follow all three matches: the shock loss to Palestine and the expected consecutive drubbing of Hong Kong and Kuwait.

While we didn't end up as the Group Leader, we are still fortunate enough to make it into the next round which is the start of the knockout stage. Don't expect Gilas 3 to take opponents lightly from here on out, now that they had their pants pulled from under them their first game into the tournament. No, we fully expect Coach Tab Baldwin to keep pressing our guys to play at a high level since we firmly believe that his job is also on the line.

You do not get the services of Andray Blatche, and whoever this mystery US scout is that was added to the team just recently, to lose to an unranked Palestine basketball team that only had 3 legitimate, top-notch basketball players.

In the next round, we're grouped with Gold medalists Iran, followed by Japan, India, Palestine and Hong Kong. Of the teams, Iran is most likely to secure top seed while Japan, Palestine and India are possible sleepers (with Palestine already owning a victory on us).

Still, there's a lot of hope for Gilas 3 to make it into the next round should we continue to play heads' up basketball.

Calvin Abueva has been a true revelation here; when he wasn't even considered by Coach Tab Baldwin for the team. The man known as "The Beast" has cut down on his theatrics and simplified his game back to when he was playing college ball at San Sebastian-- attack the rim basketball on offense, tenacious and intense on defense.

This has allowed Coach Tab to relegate former Gilas defensive/ energy guy Gabe Norwood to the bench (keeping him fresh for the next round/s), with newbies Matt Rosser and JC Intal also looking for minutes behind Abueva. Speaking of which, Rosser has provided Gilas with a defensive spark as an awesome weakside/ help shotblocker while Intal has proven himself worthy of his spot by hitting the occasional jumpshot/ three pointer when presented him. Sure, he still makes some bone headed plays here and there owing to his hesitant style of play, but it's not like he's a complete dud when he's on the court.

Andray Blatche's conditioning is still a concern, since he seems to be good for only 20-25 minutes of solid play. Versus Palestine, he started off hot and went cold in the 2nd half-- while others would argue that it was because Palestine went exclusively to playing zone defense, Blatche made it easier for them since he was hardly moving without the ball. In the next two matches against Hong Kong and Kuwait, Blatche picked his spots and sizzled more in the 2nd half but not after making some silly fouls which were obviously meant to get him subbed out of the game for a breather.

Make no mistake about it, Gilas needs Blatche to win versus Iran. And Korea. And China. And those souped up Middle Eastern teams that we might run into if we are to make it to the next round.

As for our bigs: Sonny Thoss, Ranidel de Ocampo, Asi Taulava and Marc Pingris-- they are all proving that there is life for Philippine basketball sans 2x PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo. Sure, Fajardo's the definite future of the game, but don't count out the old standard bearers just yet. Thoss has been moving his feet quite well in this tournament while proving to be a heavy force in the paint on both offense and defense, de Ocampo has embraced his new role as the resident enforcer, Pingris has been on and off due to foul trouble while Taulava continues to shine in limited bursts. With Blatche at the helm, we don't really need any of our local bigs to dominate the ball or call for isolations, so we don't really miss Fajardo as much as most of his fans would care to argue for.

Now about our guards... we're stuck with Dondon Hontiveros. He's been okay, some vintage streaks here and there, but well... it was either him or Gary David. And we've had enough of David when he suited up for Gilas 2.

As for Jayson Castro, he's currently our top scorer with 15.7 ppg (Blatche is second with 15.3 ppg). What's nice about Castro is he's doing it in a very controlled manner-- he's no longer just barrelling into the lane for kamikaze drives and or the occasional kickout pass/ turnover. He's taking confident threes, driving when the opponent is sleeping and just bullying guys here and there when he feels like it. Basically, Castro has evolved into the point guard that we've all prayed he'd be (Jimmy Alapag's feel for the game and IQ plus Mark Caguioa's explosive scoring ability).

Then there's Golden Boy Terrence Romeo, who will probably see an out-of-this-world surge in popularity once his Gilas 3 campaign is said and done (if he hasn't already). Despite playing behind Castro and continuing to figure out his spots versus complex, "one-on-one forays unfriendly" zone defenses, Romeo still managed to be the team's 3rd best scorer with 13.7 ppg while not alienating any of his seniors.

Moving forward, Gilas needs to stay focused and not let up. This team is still not there cohesion-wise. The system that they're running... they often drop it in favor of one on one plays. Against a well-disciplined team like Iran and Korea, who basically run the same things from start to finish, this could spell our defeat. As far as breaking zone defenses... our shooters need to make shots. OR, Blatche, Abueva and Castro need to break it with elite-level plays.

What we love about Gilas 3 however, as compared to Gilas 1 and 2, is its consistency in terms of defense and effort. While we can't always score, we can count on Abueva, Rosser, Norwood, Pingris and Castro to come up with stops and lock guys up. We'll see how our defenders fare from here on out with the level of competition going up in the coming days.

Gold, silver or bronze.

Laban Pilipinas!