Gilas Pilipinas’ tough loss to Bahrain forged extra doubt on its possibilities of retaining the gold medal in males’s basketball because the nation’s marketing campaign within the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Video games formally received happening Friday.
Coach Tim Cone refused to sugarcoat a lot of the 89-85 loss, a scoreline that wasn’t reflective of the problem Gilas endured for many of the contest.
“We anticipated extra from ourselves, [especially having a lot of] basketball-crazy followers,” Cone stated. “So we’re upset.”
A decisive stretch through the waning moments of the second quarter all the way in which to the third spelled doom for Gilas, because it was left helpless with Bahrain’s mixture of dimension benefit and outdoors conversions, all of the whereas with the Filipinos struggling to make photographs paying homage to their two blowout defeats in an exhibition sequence with South Korea.
Calvin Oftana was one of many few, if not the lone vibrant spot, for Gilas, making good on Cone’s perception as a “plug-and-play man” being part of his system for the long run.
Oftana confirmed no indicators of rust or harm considerations, having missed the final three months with hamstring and toe accidents, firing 31 factors on 11-of-19 taking pictures in undoubtedly his finest efficiency in a Gilas uniform.
However Oftana’s large sport went for naught, as the remainder of the staff struggled to seek out its rhythm to finish up taking pictures at a chilly 38-percent clip.
Defensive match-up issues have been additionally evident, with three of Bahrain’s 4 naturalized gamers in ex-NBA participant JaKarr Sampson, big-bodied Elijah Thomas and even Uros Ilic proving an excessive amount of to deal with.
“We had a tough time with their dimension,” stated Cone. “Despite the fact that we gained the rebounds (51-35), we had a tough time defending their dimension. [They] compelled us to break down down on their bigs as a result of we’re undersized.”
“And that both allowed them to attain inside or allowed them to kick out for three-point photographs and we couldn’t cowl each,” added Cone.
And now Gilas has no course however to play with a way of urgency on Saturday in opposition to Kazakhstan, as one other loss will doubtless finish all possibilities of even advancing to the quarterfinals as a high two finisher in Group C or as two of the most effective three third-place finishers.
Cone stated he and the remainder of the staff can’t dwell on the slender loss longer.
“Sooner or later, you may be upset solely lengthy sufficient,” stated Cone. “After which, you bought to maneuver on.”
“That is the primary sport of the event, so we received to maneuver on,” he stated. “However we really feel like we all know that we may be higher than we did as we speak. And I feel we are going to.”
