Day 1, Group A: Philippines vs. Sri Lanka

[TrueBluePinoy]

PHILIPPINES OFF TO A WINNING START



TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - South East Asia champions Philippines got off to a winning start, beating Sri Lanka 115-31 in the Group A opener on Thursday.

The Philippines, who had finished ninth in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship in Tokushima, scored the first eight points of the game and cruised along thereafter.

Sri Lanka, playing in the FIBA Asia Championship after a gap of 14 years – the island nation’s last appearance came in the 1995 edition at Seoul – struggled with their scoring rhythm and returned a woeful 19% in field attempts.

Philippines led 28-9 at the end of the first quarter, and only grew in strength as the game progressed.

Jared Dillinger led Philippines’ scoring with a game-high 21 points, and collected 11 rebounds.

Pauliasi Taulava came off the bench and collected a game-high 13 boards to go with his 15 points, as coach Joseller Guiao used 11 of his players for more than five minutes each.

Philippines play East Asian champions Japans on the morrow, while Sri Lanka take on last edition’s bronze medalists Korea.

Lazy researching on the part of the reporters. Korea is the reigning East Asian Champions.

[bolabasket]

PHILIPPINES OFF TO A WINNING START



TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - South East Asia champions Philippines got off to a winning start, beating Sri Lanka 115-31 in the Group A opener on Thursday.

The Philippines, who had finished ninth in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship in Tokushima, scored the first eight points of the game and cruised along thereafter.

Sri Lanka, playing in the FIBA Asia Championship after a gap of 14 years – the island nation’s last appearance came in the 1995 edition at Seoul – struggled with their scoring rhythm and returned a woeful 19% in field attempts.

Philippines led 28-9 at the end of the first quarter, and only grew in strength as the game progressed.

Jared Dillinger led Philippines’ scoring with a game-high 21 points, and collected 11 rebounds.

Pauliasi Taulava came off the bench and collected a game-high 13 boards to go with his 15 points, as coach Joseller Guiao used 11 of his players for more than five minutes each.

Philippines play East Asian champions Japans on the morrow, while Sri Lanka take on last edition’s bronze medalists Korea.

[Sakamoto]

a didnt see a travelling call for RPteam .

[donmar]

Do you guys really need over 4 pages of discussion for a game you blew out against Sri Lanka? Scary to see when the pilipins play against a top team like Korea or China, would there be 50 pages of over the top arguments?

there are more than 50, if not 100, Filipino posters in this forum and some of them hasn't log-on yet... expect 50-60 more pages on this thread alone

[durden_tyler]

Do you guys really need over 4 pages of discussion for a game you blew out against Sri Lanka? Scary to see when the pilipins play against a top team like Korea or China, would there be 50 pages of over the top arguments?

When we said we were a basketball country, we were very, very serious.

[paolylo]

this game doesn't mean a damn thing. it just shows the huge gap in the level of talent. i hate to see a statistical analysis by our geniuses here on a game like that.

the bottom line is that there are hardly any changes with the way our RP Team plays. how they did things in the Jones Cup is how they played today. well and good if they manage to win games on sheer talent and athleticism alone. i just hope it's enough to beat Iran, Jordan, and China (Taiwan, Korea, and Japan are beatable even with the over-dribbling highlight plays.. they just need to defend better).

[TheShot]

Do you guys really need over 4 pages of discussion for a game you blew out against Sri Lanka? Scary to see when the pilipins play against a top team like Korea or China, would there be 50 pages of over the top arguments?

[donmar]

I think Mick TT is still bothered by his back problems.. he only played for 4 minutes.. hope he's ok.. maybe Kots Kalbs saving him for the bigger games...

[FatFingerz]

Another good thing: YG is now playing to win! (Of course this is the big thing haha)

Seeing Asi and Japeth together at the same time in the game with 50+ lead... YG shows no mercy... XD

[reamily]

Sri Lanka was just scouting RP Team...Sri Lanka will sweep Japan and Korea

Battling korea and japan is the real thing for Sri Lanka for rp's delight

[PogiIT]

if you will say we played bad today, you definitely have no basketball IQ. the only time rp played bad in this game was 2nd quarter... did you see how they moved in the 1st quarter? i saw more movements... the reason we played bad in 2nd quarter was we became complacent a bit, and yeng guiao pulled his starting 5 players one by one... for some people here stop being so fucking genius... this is definitely a confidence booster for our team! Go RP!

Well said!!!!

[geohunk]

We have a 50-50 chance of winning against Japan, especially since I heard that they just changed their head coach right after the Jones Cup and so dangerously close to this tournament, hopefully that would be an advantage for us. If we can miraculously overcome our weaknesses w/in 24 hours, namely outside shooting, ballhandling and defense, and pray that their new players won't be much of an impact in the game, then yeah we will beat them.

And about the Sri Lanka game, to the "geniuses" here who are blinded by the oh so huge score difference, I guess they fail to observe the finer points and nuances of that game and how sloppy we played considering we are the better team. Japan nor Korea won't play like Sri Lanka, as if that isn't so obvious. There was some half court plays yes, but most of those we had alot of difficulty executing against such a weak team. The reasons why we won big against them is not because we are sooo good, but because the Sri Lankans were sooo bad, and majority of our points were from fastbreaks off of turnovers. Don't expect the same from Japan tomorrow.

And I will be praying for that win.

[durden_tyler]

Two points first:
1) We would could have won this game by 150+ points and still people would nitpick, which is kind of understandable and probably tolerable because this was a lose-lose game anyway. You don't win in this sure-win ball games because you just can't. Think of it as fighting your little brother: whatever you do, you're the bad guy either for a) beating him up or b) not beating him up perfectly.

2) i would have started for the Sri Lankan team and i would have had 10 points at the minimum. (Half-kidding, so i'd take 5 points)

Now on to the game...

The Good:
Team Pilipinas DID NOT play down to the competition. We showed fire and energy early on. We did not shoot well from beyond the arc in the first and throughout the game but that's what you do in warm-up games: you want to get the feel of the court and build confidence on your shot. We did not turn the ball over to start it (3 TO's in the first quarter) and had ample assists and ball movement.

The Bad:
The tendencies are still there. Fancy and one-on-one plays on the break. i can live with missed three points but can not live with UNFORCED turnovers or MISSED opportunities because of selfish acts for highlights. But then again, you are playing against the Sri Lankan team, at some point you will attempt that. But it's not as bad as some people are saying though. That little brother story it goes here.

The Ugly:
Andy Jao's commentary in the first part. He was sort-of, kind-of disrespecting the Sri Lankan basketball program saying that the players were not made for basketball, etc. But hey, maybe he's just calling it as it is. (i watched the entire game, maybe it was because of pity that i found Dr. J's comments as disrespectful.) Then again, by the 3rd quarter Dr. J was now appreciative of what the Sri Lankans were doing saying that (most) nations/teams started out on the doldrums when they were just learning the sport. Oh well. Andy Jao is forgiven.

And finally. Welcome to the basketball world, Sri Lanka. Baby steps that's what you do. Chamat at that Duke guy played their hearts out and even embarrassed some of the Filipinos on some plays. Carry on and teach your fellow Sri Lankans when you go home and let them forget about the boring sport of crickets. i mean, cricket.

[stuart]

You can check out FibaTV.com to see game highlights... probably not available yet, but soon.

Stuart

[bolabasket]

any replays?