Wutipong Dasom was expected to come out firing against Gilas Pilipinas Tuesday night, after coming off a 40-point explosion in Thailand’s easy victory over winless Myanmar the night before.
But unfortunately, he was suddenly non-existent for the Thais.
In Thailand’s 108-53 loss to the hosts, Dasom’s statline was noticeable yet forgettable, finishing with just a dismal two points on four attempts, alongside a steal, a turnover, and a foul.
But most of all, the 26-year-old forward just played a measly total of nine minutes and 40 seconds, including the last four minutes and 40 seconds of the game — totally far from his average playing time of 14.7 minutes from their last four outings.
And the playing time woes he had got the best of him, said Dasom.
“It came with the minutes,” lamented the Thai-Irish forward. “And like I said during my last interview, in 20 minutes you might have two points, or in 20 minutes you can score 40 points.
“And Gilas, they came out clicking during the second quarter and when they started clicking, it was really hard for us to score,” added Dasom, who scored his only field goal late in the game.
Asked what could possibly be the reason behind his limited playing time, Dasom laments the relationship between him and national team head coach Tim Lewis.
“In all honesty, me and my coach have not seen eye to eye since the first time he coached. There are certain things I’ve been doing a long time. I play basketball at a certain level and coming here, it was hard to fit in.
“My playing time is limited,” the six-foot-four forward openly shared.
But Lewis laid out the reason behind Dasom’s limited action, citing that the latter has yet to understand how to play the sport in a team sense.
“There’s a variety of reasons, some of them I won’t go into but he’s basically have to understand how to play within a team concept,” remarked the British mentor.
“Until he does that, he’s gonna find it hard to play at a national team level.”
Dasom was at a loss for words when he was asked about any positive takeaways from the humiliating defeat, but later on wished that the Thais could learn something from it.
“Just continue to grow. Hopefully, we continue to grow — we can get there one day. It just goes to show how far they are in Southeast Asia so I have to give credit to them. They are a great squad,” said Dasom.
