I know Iranian coach Hakan Demir wants all naturalized players out of FIBA-sanctioned tourneys but I think if there's one country that really has to back him, it's China.
I mean... what is up with our naturalized players and their insane berserker triple barrages against the Chinese?!?
Remember when Jordan Clarkson heat-checked his way to score 20 points in four minutes? Well, Justin Brownlee also had five triples in the fourth quarter to relegate China to a bronze medal match and send the Philippines to the gold medal showdown against Jordan.
The last time the Philippines were in this situation, Robert Jaworski was the coach with a PBA lineup comprised mostly of Ginebra players. This happened during the 1990 Asian Games held in Beijing.
We lost to China back then. Leading China back then are former Hapee Teeth Sparklers import Ma Jian, Wang Fei, Shan Tao, and my favorite Chinese player up until Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, and Mengke Bateer, Gong Xiaobin.
I must confess, I was ready to write Gilas off after their disastrous first half. Again, Filipinos rely heavily on our imports, and our naturalized players for some reason, go insane with their shots when the lead is big. There was a time in the second quarter when the Gilas players played basketball hot potato which ended up with a Calvin Oftana baseline triple. No offense to Oftana, but it was more of the other players hesitating to take the shot than him getting the ball with the 24-second violation about to kick in. Again, say what you want with the way we played in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, but it was Jordan Clarkson's take-charge attitude that made the China win happen.
In some ways, Brownlee was shooting heavily guarded shots in ill-advised times. Moreover, our other naturalized player, Angelo Kouame, just can't get his offensive game going. In Pinoy terms, "isusubo na lang, iluluwa pa" was basically his offensive game in a nutshell. Moreover, when Kouame misses his shots, he tends to frustrate himself by creating a bigger mess.
But Kouame played great basketball last night. What Brownlee was in offense, he was in defense. In some ways, we remember why most of our naturalized players before Clarkson and Brownlee were big players.
And Brownlee? Puuuuuuuuutttt(*((*^&^$^##$#%%!!!!
The man tore it up in the fourth quarter! As mentioned, he unleashed bastos bombs despite the double team, the absence of offensive rebounders, and the fact that shooting fast-break threes are double-edged swords!
THE DUDE WAS ON FIRE AND HE TORCHED THE RING!
And then Scottie Thompson played like the PBA version of Scottie Thompson. Again, this was the one thing we missed in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Thompson struggled for most of the tourney up until the China game. In the Asian Games, he is Tim Cone's premier quarterback. We saw the value of Kiefer Ravena in the World Cup because it felt like we did not have leaders inside the court and Thompson did well, as well as his backup Kevin Alas. Sure, the NLEX Road Warrior had a couple of lapses but played big in the fourth quarter.
Again, I will never get why Chot Reyes sat out CJ Perez. It felt like Baby Beast was Tim Cone's version of Dwight Ramos. Whenever he is there, he tries his best to brave the defenses of the enemies. Inasmuch as I want to see Terrence Romeo and Calvin Abueva back in Gilas Pilipinas action, I can't say that I hate Perez doing damage with his drives.
In some ways, it felt like Jayson Castro when he was dribble-driving his way to become Asia's top point guard.
Finally, let me just say this. While I see no difference in the way the FIBA World Cup squad and the Asian Games team execute their plays, I thought Tim Cone was more active in solving the crisis. Chot Reyes usually models his getup and coolly goes to his team after calling a timeout while Tim Cone is like the ex-pat version of Yeng Guiao. At first, it feels like there is nothing different about this, but there are players who respond to urgency. Chot Reyes had a similar approach during the South Sudan and China games but it took time for him to do that. Cone on the other hand, probably had no intentions of spamming CJ Perez (which is why Baby Beast would rather go on a vacation than wait for an Asian Games call-up) but because of his attitude, he is suddenly Tim Cone's spark plug off the bench.
I think with the gold medal match, Cone has avenged the 1998 PBA Centennial Dream Team as well. But knowing Tim Cone and his two grand slams, I bet he wants to end the tournament with the gold medal. Jordan has an intact lineup with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at the forefront. Aside from our preliminary beatdown, we can't have RHJ playing in the PBA with the bragging rights of owning the national squad.
What better way to end our international basketball run by a win in the Asian Games!