Why Gilas Lost To Palestine

Yes, we lost. Yes, we were expected to win. Yes, it’s a historic upset. But none of those things matter now. What matters is that Gilas learns from this game and uses those lessons to get better (hopefully, in time for tomorrow’s game).

That being said, here are three things that contributed to our loss to Palestine.

OUTREBOUNDED

Palestine, despite having a 6’8” center, outrebounded the Philippines 58-53. What’s worse is that Palestine totally owned Gilas on the offensive boards, with a 23-17 advantage. Those come out to 12 potential second-chance points. In a two point loss, denying them 2 of those offensive rebounds could have won us the game.

The Gilas big men actually rebounded well, led by Blatche with 12, Abueva collaring 8, Thoss with 6, and de Ocampo with 5. But it’s the box-out system that seems to be broken, with Palestine’s Rebound Brothers, the Sakakinis, getting 6 offensive rebounds each. Their big O-reb numbers were aided by our defensive scheme, something I will get into in the next paragraph.

Gilas Loses to Palestine on Historic Upset, 75-73.

By halftime, all the telltale signs were there. The stagnant offense, the confused defense, the silly mistakes, and the lackluster effort. All bode ill for Gilas and it was a prophecy that would soon come to fruition.

In the first quarter, the enigma that was Palestine drew first blood, holding a tenuous lead until the halfway mark of the quarter, when Gilas tied the score at 7. Andray Blatche and the just-inserted Terence Romeo then took the Palestinean defense apart, scoring in a variety of ways both inside and outside. The quarter ended with the Philippines leading 27-12.

In the second quarter, Palestine showed just how fast they can adjust as a team, as well as how well disciplined they were. Realizing that the Philippines was a more dynamic offensive team with Romeo playing, they went at him on defense, forcing him out of the game in favor of the more systematic-on-offense-and-more-solid-on-defense Jayson Castro. They then went after Andray Blatche, who picked up two quick fouls and had to sit down too. Palestine then took advantage of the suddenly toothless Gilas and whittled down the lead to a mere 5 points, 45-40.