FIBA Asia Championship 2013: The Pointing Game (Chinese Taipei - Philippines Round 1 Match Up)

Chinese Taipei (3 - 0) def. Gilas Pilipinas (2 - 1) 84 - 79

Tseng Wen Ting gave Mick Pennisi a run for his money for best actor in this game.
Kidding.
(credits to interaksyon.com)

  This was the very first FULL game of Gilas which I could watch, since I've been busy with school work these past few days. Well, malas nga naman.

  This was supposed to be a revenge game of sorts for Gilas Pilipinas. They wanted justice for the OFWs being abused in Taiwan. They wanted revenge for their exclusion in the Jones Cup. It wasn't only the team who wanted it; the WHOLE NATION wanted it. I honestly wanted it.

  Sadly we couldn't get it.

  So, as a staple of Philippine culture in a sense, who's to blame?

  The referees are an easy pick, after all, they made A LOT of dubious calls during that game, with Tseng Wen Ting leading the charge in the flopping department. Gary David has also received quite a lot of flack for his poor performance these past few games, especially now shooting an ATROCIOUS 0 - 5 from the field, where those 5 shots are usually gimmies for him in the PBA. You can also blame Coach Chot, well after all, he is the coach.

  Well, to find out who's fault it was really, let me present to you some points I got from the game:

• Coach Chot isn't showing his full deck of cards yet.... You don't believe me? Okay, think of it this way; Gilas had quite an advantage in terms of their front court, so they could have easily utilized a front court of Junemar and Marcus, where Marcus would play 4 and Junemar would play 5. With that, LA Tenorio could have paired up with Marcus using the pick and roll. Taiwan would double Marcus (of course), and Junemar can be left open for either an offensive rebound or an under goal stab. Instead, Coach Chot utilized a SMALL and QUICK line up, which was effective, but simply wasn't enough. During Taiwan's run in the 4th quarter, they used a speedy five, but not a physically imposing one. Japeth isn't exactly one to defend the interior in terms of banging bodies, plus Marc Pingris is undersized. Point is, Coach Chot must be hiding something from us, and teams better watch out.
• .... but he should have done a better job rotating his players. I'm actually happy Coach Chot admitted this mistake to the media. He became too trigger happy with trusting the literal second unit of the team to carry the team's momentum entering the 4th quarter. Sadly, the second unit wasn't mentally ready, and that caused the downfall of the team. The distribution of minutes wasn't as balanced as I hoped it would be, and for sure, Coach Chot will learn from this mistake of his for the next games which Gilas will have.
• Gary David is due for a breakout game. Has Gary David been scouted? Not exactly. It's just a matter of Gary not having the hot hand these past few games. He missed a lay - up and a mid range jumper earlier, shots that he can shoot in his sleep. It's simply been a bad run for Gary so far, but all hope isn't lost. Eventually, he will catch fire and we can proudly say: NAGLILIYAB NA, ANG KAMAY NI EL GRANADA!!!!!
• NO ONE can defend Jayson Castro one on one. I'll make this one short and sweet. Jayson Castro had a lot of attempts which would have went in on a regular day, but the effect of a Quincy Davis in the defensive end affected his shot. Once Gilas faces a team without a physically imposing front line like Korea (yes, IMO they're front line isn't as imposing as Chinese Taipei who has Quincy Davis) and Japan, The Blur will be out slashing to the rim as if he's telling the opposing team: GET OUT OF MY WAY.
• Chinese Taipei deserves credit. As much as I hate to admit it, they do. They do deserve credit for rallying back into the game. They showed great composure and perseverance, despite a rabid Filipino crowd chanting against them. They took advantage of Marcus Douthit's absence during the 4th quarter, and after that, they couldn't be stopped.
• The refs didn't lose this game for Gilas.. kinda. After looking at the stats, I became 50 - 50 as regards to the involvement of the referees regarding the game. Gilas had a +6 advantage in terms of free throws, only making 13 out of 20. Gilas was also a +5 in terms of fouls committed, with most of those fouls called on them being questionable, especially those flops by Tseng Wen Ting and that hand check call on Gabe Norwood in the dying minutes of the game. Maybe if Gilas made more free throws, they would have won. Maybe if the referees made the players continue playing instead of calling unnecessary fouls, it would have made a difference. Just maybe.'
• Gilas has the tools to win the FIBA Asia Championship. As Jason Webb excellently pointed out during the TV5 Telecast, Gilas' squad is CRAZY deep. Everyone can contribute at anytime, and that's actually pretty scary. Think of it this way; they lost by 5 points against a Chinese Taipei team which played the best basketball of their lives in that game. Gary David, Jeff Chan, Jayson Castro and Jimmy Alapag to some extent, played horribly in terms of their offensive output, yet, they lost by only 5. Yes, nakakapanghinayang. I agree. I know the feeling. But this team has the depth to match up with teams such as China, South Korea and Iran. It's just a matter of everyone in the team clicking at the same time.

   Now, the question is, who would Gilas rather face in the quarterfinals? China, South Korea or Kazakhstan? Obviously, Kazakhstan would be the favorite but let's be serious here; Chinese Taipei probably won't lose against Qatar and Japan, plus Kazakhstan has a low chance of beating China, albeit depleted at this point. So, who would I choose between China and Korea? I'll be leaning more towards South Korea.

I think it's time to break this Korean Curse, shall we.
(credits to interaksyon.com)

  Chinese Taipei's style of play kind of reminded me of the Koreans, although I noticed that the Koreans have been leaning more towards a slashing based type of offense rather than a shooting based one. Korea is bigger in terms of height, but they don't have an imposing inside presence such as a Quincy Davis or a Yi Jianlian, so I'd rather face them. Then, we could probably set up a rematch against Chinese Taipei, then we can get our revenge. Hey, it's better than having to face China, then Iran. Anyone but Iran.

  For now, we, the Filipino nation must remain faithful with our National Team. It's just one loss. Let's stop playing the pointing game, and instead we should should unite as one nation, as one Gilas Pilipinas. All is not lost. Together we say..

LABAN PILIPINAS! PUSO!

The next round of festivities will happen this Monday, August 5, 2013 at the Mall Of Asia Arena. The first match of Gilas will be against Japan, followed by Qatar and Hong Kong.