Stats-wise, it would be hard for any team to top what Gilas Pilipinas did to Myanmar during the opener of the 2017 Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championship. But coach Chot Reyes wanted to see the same energy from his troops when they faced Singapore on Saturday night.
“We wanted to beat our hustle numbers from last night,” the 53-year-old mentor shared after Gilas’ 113-66 win over Singapore.
And the hustle numbers are the factors not figured into stat sheets, like diving for loose balls, deflections, hockey assists, and contesting shots.
“The hustle stats are stats you don’t see on your stat sheets. So we have our different things, deflections, I think we had ten deflections in the first half, I don’t know how many we had in the second half,” the five-time Coach of the Year explained.
“Screen assists, screens that lead to baskets, to shots, the pass that lead to assists, diving on the floor for the loose ball, what we call our floor burns. Padamihan ng gasgas sa tuhod.
“We track all of those things. I’ve been doing that for all my teams. Coca-cola teams, I’ve been doing that since fourteen to fifteen years ago. Those are the things we track that are not in the regular stat sheet,” the eight-time PBA champion coach added.
Against Singapore, Gilas did not display the same intensity on the defensive end; they failed to switch on screens, meaning the majority of Singapore’s 24 three-point attempts were wide-open — the Singaporeans knocked down eight. Moreover, their opponents were more aggressive getting to the charity stripe, attempting 20 free throws compared to 14 for Gilas.
Maybe playing in their second game in two days has taken its toll for Gilas, or so the national team tactician thinks.
“Even if we have been trying different combinations, we should still be playing at a high level,” he furthered.
“I understand from the players’ POV, it’s hard to get themselves ready and up all the time for these games, but we have to remain disciplined and prepare for the tougher games.”
And with a hungry Malaysia next on their slate, Gilas can’t let up.
