‘Game Thoughts’
A close and exciting but also quite frustrating Game to watch for Filipino Fans, one that we probably should’ve won had a better Coach been around for the Team.
It’s typical of Coach Chot Reyes’ Team where on Offense they would run one or two Plays, and then stop, stand around until someone just tries to create a Shot on his own. Reyes’ National Teams has been like that since 2007, and now 16 Years later it is still like that.
Anyway, a big Part of what made this Game exciting for me is the presence of Karl Anthony Towns (KAT) for the Dominican Republic Team. He’s not just an ordinary Player, he is a National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Player who is at the height of his Career right now.
‘Player Thoughts’
Junemar Fajardo had a big Game, scoring 16 points on 5 out of 5 Field Goals (FG) from the two-point Area, grabbed 7 rebounds and only had one Turnover (TO). I would consider this Game as the Highlight of his Career so far because he did it against no less than KAT. This is probably the closest Fajardo will come to playing against an All-Star NBA Player in a real, competitive Game.
AJ Edu was a revelation, he hasn’t played much for the National Team these last few Years and when he finally did, he played against a Player of KAT’s caliber and excelled. KAT still got his numbers (25 points and 10 rebounds), but it is obvious he would’ve been a lot more dominant had AJ had not been there to guard him. KAT was held down to only 36% shooting from the two-point Area and 5 TOs with the help of AJ’s defense against him
KAT as mentioned above still did well, but shot poorly from the Field, also only shooting 20% from the three-point Area (making only 1 out of 5 shots). As the Commentators mentioned, he can be stopped, it looked like most of his misses came from when he is forced to his Left or Weak-hand side.
Jordan Clarkson was impressive with his ability to create his own shots, that is why he is a Starter in the NBA. But he committed too many TO in this Game, at 8 it was the highest for the Gilas Team. A bit disappointing to see someone of his caliber make all those TOs.
Kai Sotto only played for several minutes when he committed two Fouls and when it became obvious on one Play that he just couldn’t keep up with KAT who simply left him behind when driving from the outside. This puts some big doubts for me on his ability to play in the NBA, defensively he just doesn’t seem to have the Lateral Speed to play there.
Dwight Ramos was the third leading Scorer for Gilas, but shot poorly from the two-point Area at only 20% (only making 1 out of 5 shots). His three-point Shooting sort of made up for it at 67% (making 2 out of 3 shots)
Kiefer Ravena played only limited minutes, but had a major impact, scoring a Basket and handing out two Assists. He probably should’ve been giving more playing time.
‘Final Thoughts’
A disappointing Game, but for me a memorable one because at least close and our Players got to measure up to an NBA Star Player.
SOURCE STATS: https://www.fiba.basketball/basketballworldcup/2023/game/2508/Dominican-Republic-Philippines#tab=boxscore
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