Former Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin was present at the Philippine Arena on Friday evening to witness Gilas Pilipinas’ inaugural game in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 against the Dominican Republic.
Accompanied by the Blue Eagles, they were among the 38,115 fans who rallied behind the Philippines, yearning for an upset against the 23rd-ranked basketball nation in the world.
Despite Gilas’ 87-81 loss, Baldwin expressed satisfaction with what he observed from the team.
“I thought Gilas did a good job controlling the pace of the game and they needed to do that in order to give Jordan Clarkson as many efficient minutes as he was able to play — and I use the word ‘efficient’ loosely because his shooting wasn’t great at 9-of-24 and of course he had the eight turnovers,” Baldwin, who guided New Zealand to the semis of the 2002 World Championships, shared to Noli Eala on Radyo5’s Power and Play.
“Nevertheless, he anchors that offense as we all see and we all expected that to be the case. We saw the magic that he can weave in creating shots and in scoring, which really right up to the end kept Gilas in the game.”
Clarkson, who fouled out with a mere three minutes remaining in the fiercely competitive match, concluded with 28 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists but struggled with eight turnovers.
Clarkson’s exit led to speculation about who should have assumed the primary playmaking role for Gilas in the critical moments.
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes opted for Scottie Thompson. Unfortunately, the decision backfired, with the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player committing pivotal turnovers that enabled the Dominicans to pull ahead.
Many supporters hoped for Kiefer Ravena to fill that role, particularly after his valiant first half performance that saw him execute numerous plays.
However, Baldwin doesn’t see any issue with the alleged lack of depth in the point guard position for Gilas.
“I really think people need to stop talking about positional basketball. We have ball-carriers and this is probably the term people need to start using.
“Scottie Thompson’s a ball-carrier. Kiefer is certainly an excellent ball-carrier. He played extremely well in the first half last night. Dwight Ramos is a confident ball-carrier. Of course, Jordan is a good ball carrier, so we don’t have problems there,” he remarked.
“I think the 19 turnovers, and Jordan had eight [while Scott had five] of those, were really a byproduct of the style of play where we use an attacking style of play, to collapse defenses and kick out to shooters. We had a little bit of limited success doing that with Roger (Pogoy) and Scott hitting a couple of threes, but three-point shooting is a whole other story in both games. But that’s the modern style of play for a lot of teams. No matter how you create that penetration, whether it’s isolation or whether its ball screens, that’s what people are doing. They are trying to collapse defenders to kick out to shooters and that’s characterized in the game. Gilas had a guy who could create, get in the paint, and score in Jordan. But if you have that style of play, you are going to have to live with a few more turnovers,” he explained.
“But we don’t have a point guard problem.”
Now, Gilas is poised for a couple of critical games in the coming three days, facing do-or-die situations. They will take on Angola on Sunday and Italy on Tuesday.
For them to secure victories, according to the American-Kiwi head coach, Filipinos must first believe in the possibility of achieving the improbable.
“What I liked about last night was it looked to me that Gilas believed that they can win the game. When you do that, you have a chance. Now, your margin of error is small because you are going up against highly-talented, more experienced teams and players,” he noted.
“But it all starts with the attitude. If the attitude is we take this game one possession at a time. Gilas came out and scored — Dwight scored in the first possession. You think, why can’t you do that again? Why can’t you that again? I don’t care about how good your opponent is because if you think that, the possibility exists that it can happen,” he continued.
“They have to believe that they have a chance.”
