GILAS PILIPINAS VS NEW ZEALAND | 022626 | WHAT WE GAINED IN DEFEAT

Gilas Pilipinas lost to New Zealand, 69 to 63.

Can we really complain?

Well, I guess on offense?

But I think we delivered when it mattered.

The obvious problem I saw is that the offense didn't look as fluid, especially with Justin Brownlee having an off-night. I thought Tim Cone should have pulled Brownlee out earlier, but I get why he was there because, regardless of his offensive struggles, his presence did enough to open up the other players.

Now, I saw people saying that this could signal the end of Brownlee's Gilas stint. Well, he's already turning 38 this year, so that's already a given. Again, if only his shots fell, we could have won. But still, it's unfair for us to think that he's a liability because covering him up made the locals look for their shots.

An import will always get the bulk of the defense, and any import will suffer the same problem if he has two players constantly latched onto him. So leave Brownlee alone because, again, this is just an off-night.

And if Tim Cone still trusts him, then that means he's still right for his system.

Anywho, Dwight Ramos obviously made his presence felt, and I won't hype AJ Edu's defense because, dammit, that is his normal day at the office.

Okay, so I am still going to hype Ramos and Edu.

I thought Ramos also somewhat struggled in the game, but he did enough when push came to shove. When Brownlee looked lost, he took over, especially in the fourth quarter. When he took the last shot from way beyond the three-point line, I still thought he did well. Ramos stepped up in a way that made me see him not just as a Gilas option, but as someone who, in the qualifying windows, can be at par with Brownlee’s contributions.

And boy, AJ Edu really destroyed the New Zealand interior. He was hauling boards, swatting shots, and disrupting plays. In the times he faced off against their big men, it felt like either Gilas Pilipinas had leveled up its interior defense, or New Zealand had gotten weaker.

The outside shots messed Gilas up, and while there were dunks and missed rebounding plays here and there, they weren't as dominant as we normally see them. Frankly, AJ Edu laid waste to these guys, and the defense wasn't the problem in that contest.

I thought Tim Cone did well by shocking the Tall Blacks.

I do want to stress the plays of Cjay Perez, Juan Gomez de Liano, Quentin Millora-Brown, and Scottie Thompson.

The explosion of Perez is something I have been hoping for. Perez is there to be a Gilas play disruptor. When everyone else is focused on properly executing the designed plays of Tim Cone, Perez is there to just iso his way to the basket. It's similar to what Rhenz Abando did in the 2023 FIBA World Cup because this means there is a "libero" to just go gung-ho when the plays aren't cutting it.

I guess the only problem I saw there is that this might have spooked Brownlee's offense. JB playing like a decoy worked when the shots were hitting, but during the third-quarter scoring drought, Brownlee's lack of offense just disrupted the team's flow.

Also, I thought Perez did something costly during the game, but I am going to save this for later.

Scottie Thompson did well despite limited minutes, apart from the errant heave that could have been a better shot in the dying seconds of the second quarter. In fact, in the times he was on the court, I felt like the offensive flow was smoother. And of course, Scottie's impact is in the way he plays defense, getting rebounds despite the opposing giants.

And then there's Quentin Millora-Brown, who is basically our FIBA-approved version of Christian Standhardinger. If there's a need for a player to get out of Japan and learn to develop his offense, it's QMB in the PBA. His defense was insanely solid. However, his offense needs polishing. Yes, he was facing a lot of tall players there, but he needs to learn to secure his rebounds and execute his putbacks, especially since I think he's not that fearful of the big men.

QMB to a weak-ass PBA team so he can be the main focal point of their offense?

Yes, please.

It’s not like the Chiba Jets will give him a chance to shine with all the imports they have.

But again, Gilas suffered the same issue they always had in the game — the offense.

However, this is not because the plays weren't executed properly. This is a mix of indecision to throw up a shot or flat-out having an off-night.

Again, this is why I love the Juan GDL impact in the lineup. The dude's stint in Lithuania worked well for him because he never really saw the Caucasians as threats. This isn't a race thing, but we always had this notion that playing against Europeans is something we can't really do well. Yes, we won against Latvia, but we still haven't really gotten rid of our insecurities playing against these kinds of players. Juan GDL's problem was his 4-of-11 shooting, but that's about it. It felt like we had a Jimmy Alapag or Jayson Castro on the court with the way he played. He is not afraid to shoot the ball, and he is powerful enough to battle for boards. If he can be like this for a long time, then we finally have the scoring quarterback to pair with Ramos. And his defense — it felt like he never had the shyness Kevin Quiambao had at the start of his time in Cone's system, unlike Carl Tamayo and Calvin Oftana, who are still adjusting to Cone's system.

This may be a bad comparison, and I’m sorry to say this, but I think Tim Cone sees Quiambao, Tamayo, and Oftana the way he currently sees Jayson David, Sonny Estil, and Ralph Cu. Now, this isn’t really a bad thing, but with the way QMB, Juan GDL, and soon, Justine Baltazar and RJ Abarrientos are going to be on the team, I think they need to step up their game if they don’t want to be labeled as expendable.

And there's the costly thing that Perez did. If you look at the last field goal made by New Zealand, the defense adjusted because they had to compensate for The Baby Beast, who was pleading his case with around 23 seconds left in the game. I know it felt like it should have been a foul, but he needed to sprint back because Reuben Te Rangi was left wide open. If the Tall Black had been covered, then there's a chance he wouldn't have gotten the offensive rebound, and the ball could have gone out of bounds, or QMB or the other Gilas player nearest to the ball — which was Justin Brownlee — could have secured the defensive rebound.

Those split-second mistakes need to be lessened. You can also add that to our 53% free-throw shooting clip, and how the guys were hesitating on their shots, especially in the third quarter.

And yes, while I am overly critical of some of their lapses, I have learned in my job that the reason you have a lot to nitpick is that you see promise in a project. And this is what I saw — promise in the Gilas roadmap to the 2027 FIBA World Cup. When it was evident that Brownlee's shooting could not be saved with four minutes left, Cone and the players just went all-in, and it paid dividends.

In the final minutes, it didn't feel like New Zealand was en route to an easy victory, with QMB playing like he's not in foul trouble and Ramos not hampered by a 6-of-21 shooting night.

And here's the fun part. Australia won over Guam by just 13 points. Yes, Guam has this new scoring threat in BJ Freeman, but with the NBA regular season ongoing and their other players playing elsewhere, winning by just 13 against a team we defeated by an average of 32.5 points is something worth checking out.

But then again, our offense and defense really need work here. I thought New Zealand played physical, but managed to make enough stops. Maybe the Australian team at this stage isn't as scary as we thought they were.

So yeah, we lost to New Zealand, but we're not looking at a rout here. And that other New Zealand win we had a few years back wasn't a fluke. If so, we are now treating our Oceania bros as our Korea from decades back. They are now a curse we need to break.

Hopefully, we can play well against Australia, and hopefully, we can sustain the positives past the next round when we are about to face Jordan, Iran, and whoever gets to the next round, which is either Iraq or Syria.

Hats off to Gilas.

Now keep improving!