Gilas Pilipinas Could have WON against AUSTRALIA

(c) FIBA

Filipinos will always be Filipinos. After an expected defeat at the hands of the Aussies, Filipino fans went nitpicking again, and pointed all the negatives that they saw on the game.

I do not understand the high level of disappointment of the majority of the fans. The odd-makers, the one that will put the odds in a gambling site, are very confident Australia will trash the Philippines, that they put a +19.0 for the nation, down-under!

And if you add the fact that our team only practiced once-a-week, for two months as a preparation, how can you even go finger-pointing? 

That game was actually eye-opening. If instead of looking for mistakes, you watched that game and searched for some positives, you could have seen a lot. 

Here are the top 3 for me.

#3 The Dribble-Drive Offense is still working

The 19-all 1st quarter was the product of the dribble-drive offense. The beauty of the dribble-drive offense is, it can neutralize size disadvantages. Quick and deadly slashers magnetize defenders that will open up cracks on their defense.

What can make dribble-drive offense more powerful is chemistry. Unfortunately, that will be hard to build by our team, because of the PBA schedule and the limited practices.

With that, I did not expect their dribble-drive to be in a good level. Fortunately, it did and gave me hope for the future of our national team.

#2 Modernize Philosophy

Ever wondered why there is a boom of three-point shooting in the NBA? It was because of analytics. Analytics says that three-point shot is the most efficient shot. And the least efficient shot? Midrange shots. 

The team only attempted 15 midrange shots. That was 23.4% of their shot attempts. On the other hand, they tried 19 three-pointers. That was 29.7% of all their attempts. 

They can still improve that. I dream of the time that we are only attempting around 8 shots in the midrange and around 30 from the three-point line. 

#1 We could have beaten Australia

Seriously, it was unfortunately that almost all our guys were having an off-night from the free-throw line. They only made 7 of their 19 shots. Imagine if they made seven more, the difference will be down to 9.

Then they missed some open looks from the outside. They only made 5 of 19 tries. Imagine that they made at least two more, and you have a game, separated by three points.  

And, our line-up? That will not even crack the top 10 possible line-up that Philippines can send! 

So, stop looking for the downsides, guys! There were a lot of positive takeaways from the game. Just open your eyes.