Gilas 3.0 vs Gilas 2.0: The Wings

It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about: how would Gilas 3.0 fare against Gilas 2.0, the acknowledged best Philippine basketball team in recent times?

Just to be clear, we’ll be using the Gilas 2.0 lineup used at the FIBA World Cup, which means 2014 Andray Blatche will be in play, as well as Paul Lee but not Larry Fonacier nor Marcus Douthit.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll be talking about the wings.

GILAS 2.0	GILAS 3.0
Gabe Norwood	Gabe Norwood
Gary David	Matt Ganuelas-Rosser
Jeff Chan	JC Intal
	Calvin Abueva

Again, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that Gilas 3.0’s Norwood is equal to his Gilas 2.0 version. Let’s talk David and Chan versus MGR, Intal and Abueva.

Gilas 3.0: Smaller, Faster, Nastier.

We are one week away from the FIBA-ASIA Championships and by now, the lineup for Gilas Pilipinas has been all but finalized.

Which means it’s time for us to analyze exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of Gilas 3.0 are.

STRENGTHS

SPEED – They say “speed kills”. In the case of Gilas 3.0’s upcoming opponents, this may actually prove to be true. The addition of players like Terence Romeo, Calvin Abueva and Matt Ganuelas-Rosser to cat-quick players like Jayson Castro and Gabe Norwood has given Gilas 3.0 end-to-end speed that promises to give other Asian teams a lot of trouble. So far, only Japan and maybe South Korea seem to have the quickness needed to keep up with Gilas.

Philippines Vs Jordan Highlights!

Best line of the night: "The Philippines have theoretically beaten..."

Gilas Wins Over Jordan 72-64!

First, they could play. Then they couldn't. Then they could again.

The rollercoaster ride the Gilas team was on took its toll on the team, allowing Jordan to open up a staggering 18point lead in the second quarter, behind an offensive explosion from Rasheim Wright.

But the entry of Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz allowed the Nationals to gain their bearings as Lassiter scored 14 points on 4-10 threepointers and 1-4 FG.

The Nationals fought quarter by quarter, slowly erasing the Jordanian lead until they finally forged ahead. Marcus "Big Daddy" Douhtit came away with a stellar game, scoring 19points and grabbing 15 rebounds, while Jimmy Alapag added 11 points.

The Philippines moved just one slot down of Iran and China in the team standings.


More on this story here.

Gilas Wins Over UAE 92-52!

The Gilas Nationals vented their rage and fury over the disqualification of Fil-Ams Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter on a hapless UAE side, winning 92-52.

The Filipinos were actually off to a bad start, looking sluggish and out of sync as UAE led 9-2. But the timely substitution of Kelly Williams for Ranidel de Ocampo and Asi Taulava for Marcus Douthit seemed to fuel the Filipino rage as the dup immediately made their presence felt on both sides of the court.