Gilas Pilipinas suffered a close 76-83 loss at the hands of world no. 5 Serbia Thursday morning (Manila time) in the 2021 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament-Belgrade. And questions lingered whether the result would’ve been different if Dwight Ramos had played in the game.
Ramos has been nursing a groin injury that has not healed well over the past week. He was the Philippines’ leading scorer during the 2021 Asia Cup Qualifiers at 13.8 points per game.
But for Gilas head coach and program director Tab Baldwin, having Ramos in the game would not have automatically guaranteed a win.
“I think it would have been a different game, but it doesn’t guarantee a different outcome.”
At 6-foot-5 and having good handles, Ramos would have been a good match-up against the likes of 6-foot-5 floor generals Milos Teodosic and Stefan Jovic.
But 5-foot-10 guards RJ Abarrientos and SJ Belangel were also able to give a good account of themselves against the Eagles.
Abarrientos, who had nine points on 4-of-8 shooting, led Gilas’ come back from 16 down. He managed to score the bucket that gave them their only lead of the game with 74-73 with 3:51 left.
Belangel, on the other hand, had six assists and three steals despite going 0-of-7 from the field.
“Certainly to have his athleticism and strength defensively and his composure and skill offensively would have given us more weapons. But that doesn’t mean that that would have necessarily changed the outcome,” Baldwin continued.
“But I think that the way the game would have been played from our end of the floor might have been different.”
If the game ended up coming that close in the clutch, Ramos would then have calmed the team down with his deliberate style of play.
“Dwight has that calming influence on his teammates. And he can impose himself a little bit more easily because of his physicality and elite basketball.”
Then again, Serbia head coach Igor Kokoskov would have asked the same thing had he had Nemanja Bjelica, Nikola Kalinic, and Vasilije Micic in the game.
“But again, of course, if you add any player, if you add Micic or you add Kalinic, the game would have been different as well. But it doesn’t guarantee a different outcome.”
Baldwin, though, has already ruled out Ramos for Gilas’ do-or-die game against the Dominican Republic on Friday at 2:30AM.
And if ever Gilas pulls off a miracle against the Dominicans and advances to the semis, he might not force Ramos to play that game as well.
“I don’t think Dwight is going to be ready tomorrow,” he said.
“We have a big tournament coming up in August and we need him fully fit and back to training in a few weeks. He can’t play right now and we certainly don’t want to rush him.”
