FIBA OQT: Gilas vs Les Bleus

"Ming Ming Brothers"
(Photo credit: smartgilasbasketball.com)

What. A. Rush.

This, coming from an overseas-based basket-blogger christened by most as a "hater" for simply calling out his (or any) team's short-comings on the basketball court. If you wanted to read about someone endlessly praising your favorite player and or team, then simply look elsewhere. Look to the mainstream reporters and "analysts" who are afraid to call a spade a spade, by virtue of simply not wanting to "bite the hand that feeds them."

If you want to talk about basketball, about what player/team A or X did right or wrong, then please read on. Let the joyful exchange of ideas and light banter, all taken in harmless stride, flow.


So here we are (or there they were), in the packed SM Mall of Asia Arena (which looked more like it was SMART's) FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament-- our very own Gilas Pilipinas versus the world-ranked French men's national basketball team dubbed "Les Bleus" by their adoring countrymen. Let us just make one thing crystal clear: we have no business being there. Simply hosting the damn thing was a coup in itself, being able to play and put our country on the basketball map? That was truly a blessing from above.

On paper, Les Bleus was supposed to trample Gilas even without rising star Nicolas Batum suiting up. They were supposed to handily whoop the home team much like how Iran and Japan fared in their respective FIBA OQTs on the other side of the world. Japan lost to Latvia, 48-88, in the FIBA OQT being held in Belgrade, Serbia. Iran was dismantled by Greece, 58-73, in Turin, Italy.

Gilas? In Manila?

Lost, but only by an 84-93 count.

On Twitter, we said that we have had enough of moral victories, because they do not count.

But really, no one expected us to win. No one even flirted with the idea. We simply wanted to be competitive and not be handed a 20-piece McNugget.

The positives:

1. Guard play
Jayson Castro, Terrence Romeo, Jeffrei Chan... and Andrei Blatche (who is basically a 7"0 shooting guard) all went bananas early and even in the 3rd. They all took turns attacking the basket or sniping from the outside, enough to keep us ahead in the 1st half and close in the 2nd.

2. Interior defense
Before Boris Diaw decided to throw his weight around (quite literally) in the box, our interior defense was pretty solid and kept forcing Les Bleus to keep taking jumpshots. We were able to do this with a lot of success, despite the fact that Blatche kept playing as far away from the basket as he could (Troy Rosario, Ranidel de Ocampo and Marc Pingris all took turns patrolling the paint).

3. Ability to run
If we can run, we have a chance. That Junemar Fajardo outlet pass to Terrence Romeo was gold. Our guards are smaller, but our bigs-- Fajardo and Blatche, are just as big as theirs. So if we can get our fare share of rebounds, our guards can all run and attack.

4. Scorers all around
Our guards can score. Blatche is a threat on the floor at all times. Our bigs can get some (maybe not Fajardo, but we expect him to be better versus the New Zealand team). We still suffer from dry spells here and there, but we can definitely score.

The negatives:

1. Over-dribbling
Romeo will always be guilty of this, and in one instance he tried to go And 1 mixtape versus Tony Parker only to have Nando del Colo swoop in to take the ball on an easy double. His Ming Ming Brother buddy Ray Ray Parks followed that play with his own dribbling exhibition, and he too turned the ball over.

2. Ball-watching
The down-side of playing Dribble Drive Offense is, well, the ball-handler does 90% of the work while the rest wait it out. Literally. They wait outside to their designated spots on the floor which allows them to space it. They cannot move out of position, because the pass can come at any time. So they wait. Almost to a fault.

3. Too many isolation plays
The guards (and Blatche) kept going iso and when the Les Bleus defense started to really tighten, the guys still, bullishly tried to attack the paint instead of moving the ball around. And when they did move the ball around...

4. Hesitant
... guys did not want to shoot. Bloody hell. Seriously. Guys turned down open shots. Guys didn't want to attack the hoop in hopes of an and 1. They played tight. They played like they were on some sort of pressure to win.

Which, IMHO, Gilas shouldn't play like. They are the least pressured team (plus the Tall Blacks) in this tournament because no one really has them pencilled in to make it to the FIBA OQT Finals, let alone Rio de Janeiro. Our guys should play free, not tight. They should take open shots, hit or miss, because hey, they are open and this opportunity will not come again.

We hope Japeth Aguilar gets some burn versus the Tall Blacks, his height and athleticism will definitely come in handy against that team. Versus Les Bleus, Coach Tab Baldwin went with Rosario and the veterans probably because Boris Diaw would've owned Aguilar easily the way Beau Belga does the 6"9 athlete.

That is probably the most polite way for us to put it.

We will probably never see a Junemar Fajardo-Andray Blatche combo, though we argue that it could be our biggest asset if used correctly. Fajardo was struggling to defend the pick and roll though, and he was literally unable to move Diaw in the paint. Seriously. Fajardo. Couldn't move Diaw. our 2x PBA MVP couldn't back the chubby Frenchie down.

We could rant about how this player should have played more or less, or this player should have been included in the Final line-up, but at day's end, this is who we have. This is our Gilas team. And they fight for us despite all the criticism.

To them our heartfelt thanks and respect.

Laban Pilipinas!