Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
JUST how important will the three-point shot be for Gilas Pilipinas in the Manila Olympic Qualifying Tournament?
Norman Black, one of head coach Tab Baldwin’s deputies, believes that all of the teams the Filipinos will be clashing with in a bid to make it back to the Summer Games for the first time in 44 years will be giving Team Philippines a lot of open looks from afar.
“Being very tall, I think all of them will be willing to take a risk on that (Gilas making the three-point shots),” Black told the Inquirer after the Filipinos lost to Turkey on Friday night.
“They know that they will beat us underneath because of their size. That’s why we need to make the three-point shot to have a chance.”
Against the Turks, Gilas went on a tear and even enjoyed a six-point lead, 25-19, thanks to a hot start in which Jason Castro hit two triples and Andray Blatche one.
But when push came to a shove, and after the Turks erected a 50-33 lead early in the third period, the Filipinos’ outside guns went silent.
Gilas hit just four triples in the second half and finished with a 9-for-27 clip. In the first half, the Filipinos made 5-of-13 tries.
Turkey, which the Philippines could play for a third time in three weeks if it reaches the Final Four, went on to outshoot the hosts from three-point range, finishing with a 10-for-29 clip.
Gilas opens its OQT bid against France at 9 p.m. today, marking the second time in two years that the Filipinos will be clashing with the formidable French.
In 2014, when the Philippines was preparing for the World Cup in Spain, the Filipinos gave the French a hard time before posting a 75-68 victory in the Antibes International Tournament.
It was the 12 triples that the Filipinos converted in that game that made it close.
And Gilas will certainly want something as good, if not better, in order to post the tournament’s biggest upset right on opening day.