With 3 seconds to go and a shot at a tie or outright victory, Jayjay Helterbrand did what any other Pinoy basketball player would do in that same situation.Ignore the coach's set play and take the shot himself. For his selfishness, he was rewarded with an ego-deflating block. And the Philippine Team paid for it with another loss.
And to think it was a won game that we lost through lackluster defense and selfish offense. The Philippines led by 19 points in the 1st quarter and by 12 points with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.
The combination of Asi Taulava, Kerby Raymundo, Gabe Norwood and Cyrus Baguio was particularly disastrous on both offense and defense as Willie Miller tried to outplay the Japanese 5 by himself.
Gabe Norwood and Ranidel de Ocampo were ineffective as well as designated shooter James Yap went down with a neck injury.
The only bright spot was Japeth Aguilar, who was dominant on offense, going for something like 14 points on 6-7 shooting while being extremely active on the boards and being quite adequate on defense.
But as long as we play the US brand of basketball (aka selfish, showboat-y basketball), we will never win at this level.
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