FIBA Asia: Pilipinas bows to young China

Three early fouls plus China's giants
were too much for Big Daddy 

Everything seemed to be in place: Team Pilipinas coming off a superb Jones Cup championship romp, China opting to send a bunch of wide-eyed kids who haven't grown into their man-bodies yet (most of whom will probably form the core of their 2016 FIBA Asia medal-round squad) and overall team chemistry that has made it to must-see YouTube television.

But instead of staying true to our newly-placed "dribble drive" offense, the team settled for an absurd amount of long balls that did them in 71-68. If you shoot 6/35 from deep, chances are you're just not going to put yourself in a solid enough position to win games. The team's resident gunners-- Jeffrei Chan, Gary David and Larry Fonacier were a combined 4/21 from the three-point line while Ranidel de Ocampo-- who was probably assigned to pull his defenders (a bunch of 6"10 and 7"1-3 Chinese giants) outside, going 0/5.