Ginto na naging bato pa for Gilas

Fonacier on fire in the 3rd

We had a 13 point lead going into the final canto of arguably the most emotionally-fueled game of the first round given the off-court, political drama versus Chinese Taipei.

And somehow, someway, we managed to blow it in a lengthy lull to start the 4th quarter. A lull that has been somewhat of a curse on this Gilas Pilipinas team which often leaves us to second-guess head coach Chot Reyes but then again he knows more about basketball then we do so we'll keep our "couch potato rants" under control.

After riding the hot shooting of Larry Fonacier in the 3rd quarter, everything fell apart for Gilas. The referees will find ways to impact the game for or against us. That's a given. It also helped that the Taiwanese are arguably the most skilled foul-baiting floppers this side of the world- arms flailing and all  (we wonder if they got that from being a football country-- sorry, couldn't help it). So yeah, we fell apart. Gary David, Jayson Castro and Jeffrei Chan all playing together, all great scorers, but all one-on-one guys not one of which can really call a legit play without undermining the other.