We all thought that our country's bread and butter when it came to the sport of basketball is our ability to run and wreak havoc, that we were arguably the best at it among all six combatants in the FIBA OQT. We also flirted with the notion that despite being ranked just a few spots below the Tall Blacks, that we had a realistic shot at beating them and somehow making it into the next round.
The Tall Blacks were faster up and down the court, their guards simply went through back screens time and again to get open looks, the brothers Tai and Corey Webster took turns dismantling whoever was assigned to guard them-- even our own established perimeter defender par excellence Gabe Norwood looked mortal. Their passes kept finding shooters, slashers or bigs looking for bunnies.
The game was never really close, even if we were able to trim the lead down to two. Gilas simply made a few shots here and there, while the Tall Blacks misfired. Still, they executed while we simply went with whoever was "hot" at the time.
The loss stings, because we could have really won the game save for some lousy calls. Lousy, not because they were wrong, but because our guys could have done better had they been fundamentally trained (to avoid brainless traveling and offensive fouls on illegal screens calls).
It hurts, because our guys failed to take advantage of certain moments because they simply didn't know what to run. How to go about it. How to make something out of nothing.
There was no real rhythm, much like in the third quarter of the France game. We were simply waiting for whichever guard to take over. The bigs were reduced to ball watchers. Ranidel de Ocampo has been terribly misused in both games.
Andray Blatche gave us his all, pouring most of his points in the 2nd half but it wasn't enough. He has been scouted as a 7"0 shooting guard who can knock down open threes but has trouble getting into the lane when it's packed and when guys are able to trap or anticipate his behind the back dribbling display.
The other designated scorers, Jayson Castro and Terrence Romeo, were bottled up. Jeffrei Chan gave us a boost, but at the same time (and quite expectedly) his guy was pretty much returning the favor on the other side of the court.
Still, we are proud of our players for valiantly fighting and serving flag and country.
The brunt of the errors in terms of preparation and scouting fall squarely on the shoulders of Coach Tab Baldwin et. Al. The manpower that he chose to go to war with, ultimately showed that he greatly miscalculated.
It is time to get back to work, defend that Asian Silver or win Gold.
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