June 10, 2016
Countdown to Manila OQT: 25 days
Gilas Pilipinas defeated Iran, 81-70 in the squad’s first exhibition match after months of preparation for the upcoming 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Manila in July.
Andray Blatche had 20 points and 11 rebounds, while four others scored in double-digits. The Philippines controlled the game from start to finish, leading by as much as 22 at one point.
Gilas head coach Tab Baldwin said after the game that the team improved and did better than its performance during the closed-door scrimmage.
“I thought offensively, we were more cohesive. We are getting closer to knowing who is the right guy at the right spot at the right time. That’s a growing issue for us,” Baldwin said.
Gilas shot 47 percent overall, and made nine of its 23 three-point attempts even if the team did not have Jeff Chan and Marcio Lassiter.
“Overall, our defense was pretty good. It was better than in the scrimmage. Our rebounding was good. It was not better the other day. Those areas, we address them before the game, I think we were better. Still a long way to go,” Baldwin shared.
Looking at the build-up on a long-term scale, however, the mentor added Gilas still needs to address concerns.
One area Baldwin said Gilas hasn’t focused on that much is how to attack zone defenses. Iran used that strategy last night to come back and make the game competitive in the fourth quarter, cutting the Gilas lead down to single-digits.
“He caught us where we were weak. They probably could have beaten us if they played zone the whole game but that is not going to help them. But I think it also showed Iran wanted to win the game, which is a good thing,” Baldwin said.
“We did enough to survive, but I told the coaches because they went on a zone in the final possession of the third quarter, I said get ready for a rough ride in the fourth quarter. And they did. We were trying to survive the zone defense.”
But Baldwin added the team should get better with more time together.
“But it’s good for us. We are going to have to adapt to in-game situations. We just haven’t had a lot of time together. So both our weakness against the zone and our inability to adapt quickly really demonstrates we need more time together, we need more games,” Baldwin said.
“We are going to look at every aspect of our system. Iran got a fee baskets in transitions off turnovers we made. Credit to them for getting those opportunities. My coaching philosophy is win the easy points battle, so win the offensive rebounds, transition points, and free throw battle.”
Asked if the squad already has a good grasp of the entire system, Baldwin shared: “Not nearly far enough. But that’s a by-product of time together.”
Baldwin added he wants Gilas to remain humble in what they do, while continuing to prepare for top-level competition.
“You know, I talked to Jimmy Alapag, he was saying how I feel about the team, and I said, how can a group of guys be humble and cocky at the same time? And I mean cocky and not confident,” Baldwin shared.
“I think they’re humble because it is their nature, but they’re cocky because we have most of the elite players in the PBA, and we’ve got to hammer that out of them. We’ve got to get humble with their ability, as well as being humble by nature, because we are going against elite teams, and we can’t get elite by doing things we do in the PBA,” Baldwin added.
“That’s not a knock on the PBA, it’s just a different type of basketball and a different type of player and a different level of team depth when you think about national teams in Europe, Canada. There are 12 guys going to be heck of basketball players. So, it’s a mentality that we have to work to achieve. We have to have humility not just by nature but by understanding who we are and what we want to get, because any ounce of cockiness is not productive for us.”
