It took Jordan Clarkson at least four games to trust his teammates. I thought he was already there against South Sudan but when the fourth-quarter lead was increasing, he reverted back to his old ways.
Like ANY PBA import, JC must eventually trust the locals to make basketball easier for him.
Dwight Ramos served as a consistent support. And then there’s June Mar Fajardo prevailing over the Chinese bigs. We saw AJ Edu controlling the rebounds and outperforming the opposing bigs. Kai Sotto came off the bench and acted like a blocking machine and offensive support. Roger Pogoy and Kiefer Ravena were there to help out. And oh yeah, Rhenz Abando acted like a pest on all sides of the court.
Even Scottie Thompson, who was notoriously a non-factor in the first four games, is finally putting in the Scottie Thompson-like plays we know and love.
Also, we finally have a great third-quarter run.
China was so busy checking the other players that this prompted Clarkson's insane third-quarter heat check.
The Gilas-trademarked third-period explosion finally kicked in. From CJ Perez and Jamie Malonzo shouting like hell on the bench, to Clarkson spiking four insane long-distance daggers! When the game was already won, we saw Kai Sotto unleashing a showtime dunk and Ramos capping the night with a buzzer-beating putback.
While I fear China’s hometown cooking might be on full display as we head to their turf in the Asian Games, this is a great win because they are our Asian rivals, Zhou Qi got injured and while this is a bad thing, it’s worse to lose to a depleted Chinese lineup, and there is politics involved because of the whole China versus the world thing as well as China’s sphere of influence in the West Philippine Sea.
So while our FIBA World Cup is over, we have to watch Japan compete in the Paris Olympics, and Jordan Clarkson is en route to the United States to prepare for the NBA Training Camp, Gilas Pilipinas is now set to prepare for the Asian Games. And because our losses were close, we also qualified for the Olympic Qualifiers. Among the qualified names are Egypt, Angola, Ivory Coast (I always forget their French name), Mexico, Lebanon, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Finland, and New Zealand.
We have our groove and there is a chance. Hopefully, this China win sparks the win to solve their chemistry issues and for the fans to troll less on the team and support Gilas.
Ohhhh shhiiiiiiiit!!!