FIBA Asia Cup: Cursed

Not enough
(Photo credit: FIBA.com)

Against the South Korean men's basketball team, our Gilas Pilipinas (then, now... and the good Lord Almighty forbid, forever) appears to be cursed. There is just no other way to explain it.

We had a solid outing, our team shot 45% from the field, 44% from deep. We had 15 turnovers, sure, but that is still quite a respectable number when the opponent committed only three less. But what the hell- they shot 67% the entire night.

They shot 76% from three point territory, missing all but five of their 21 attempts. This was God's way of telling Magoo Marjon and friends to quit yapping about the whole "and the curse of Korea is about to be broken!" This was the Korean's way of telling us "that was 2013, this is 2017, get with the program."

On that night, wherein we fell 86-118 despite the heroics of Terrence Romeo and Christian Standhardinger, we were simply cursed.

Prior to the match, we were worried. As soon as we finished with our 3-0 piece, we heard FIBA analysts talking about who we could face in the quarterfinals. We were praying for another break. We were praying for some other team.

Then Korea was mentioned. Then Korea became a reality. They lost to Lebanon, their tournament opener, but followed it up with a string of victories including a very impressive 76-75 win over New Zealand. Forget the history, this Korean team was pretty dangerous going into the match.

The game felt like a complete and absolute blur. We were in it in the first quarter, still fighting in the second thanks to Terrence Romeo's brilliance, but everything fell apart in the second half-- and how.

Ball screens, down screens that led to a hockey assist followed by a basket, flawless pick and roll plays that ended with either an uncontested lay-up or slam dunk. Our bigs, some of the most athletic and mobile that we could find, looked slow versus theirs. Our guards, arguably some of Asia's finest, looked like amateurs who only knew how to dribble the basketball or stand in a corner.

Our team was getting dismantled in every imaginable basketball way. It was so upsetting, that we were actually just watching the leaked episode of Game of Thrones on the side and just muted the damn thing.

It was so frustrating, that our guys on Twitter, Facebook, on TV, even Jayson Castro himself, was asking for a more "physical" approach which didn't happen until late in the 3rd quarter (thanks to Roger Pogoy hilariously chest bumping a big Korean and Raymond Almazan coming to his aide).

Hanggang ganun na lang ba tayo? Kelangan magumpisa ng rambol para masira laro ng kalaban kase hindi naten sila kaya sa malinis na laro?

The dribble drive offense was obviously scouted. Matthew Wright, the team's star in the Qatar match, was silenced. The ball-handlers were bottled-up. The Koreans weren't acquainted with Romeo which is probably why the star guard blew up in the 2nd quarter, but after the half they made it a point to keep him on lock as well.

We didn't play a bad game. Not at all. We played a solid game. Gilas was good, but was just thoroughly outclassed.

So here we are now, trying to salvage somewhere from 5th to 8th place. Hopefully, we finish as high as possible. This team, the work that it has put in in what little time it was given, deserves that much.

The silver lining here is that, yes, the FIBA Asia Cup is not a World Cup/ Olympic qualifier. So there are a lot of lessons that we can pick up here. Even PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa said as much.

Here's a bright idea:

WHY DONT YOU ASK THE PBA TEAMS TO ALLOW WHOEVER CHOT REYES WANTS TO GOD DAMN PLAY FOR GILAS ACTUALLY PLAY FOR GILAS???

Forgive us while we continue to brood in a corner.

Hindi ko pa alam paano sabihan ang #puso ko na "no bearing" naman to, kasi pag sumuporta ako, 100% or 0% lang, walang gitna gitna. Walang no bearing no bearing sakin.