After
getting shellacked for two straight games (against Turkey and Italy), Gilas
Pilipinas finally accomplished two things: prune their pool to a final 12
lineup for the Olympic Qualifying tournament and get a win.
Gilas
Pilipinas faced a Chinese team lacking their three biggest guns in Yi Jianlian,
teen sensation and recent NBA draftee Zhou Qi and Guo Ailun. Still, a win is a
win and Gilas can take heart in the fact that China can never take them for
granted ever again.
That
being said, here are four thoughts from that game:
Gilas can win, even with their main guns
having bad games.
Andray
Blatche had a double-double (14points, 12 rebounds) but he was a horrible,
horrible 4-19 from the field (4-13 from 2pt land, 0-6 from beyond the arc).
Jayson Castro was able to get inside the paint numerous times but still seemed
to have a mental block against the Chinese big men, as his shots just couldn’t
find the bottom of the net (2-7 from the field). Still, the silver lining of
their bad games is that other Gilas players stepped up to contribute and help
get the win. But make no mistake; Gilas Pilipinas can’t afford to have either Blatche
nor play as bad as this against teams like France or New Zealand.
