Loss to France forces Gilas to make quick turnaround

Jayson Castro vs two French defenders. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

France needed just 10 basketball minutes to figure out Gilas Pilipinas, completing a turnaround from a 10-point deficit at the end of the first quarter to a two-point lead at halftime.

The Philippines will have a longer period to turn Tuesday night’s defeat into a semifinal-clinching victory against New Zealand Wednesday.

READ: FIBA OQT: Gilas Pilipinas yields to Parker, France

And coach Tab Baldwin is confident the Filipinos can.

“Twenty-four hours takes care of a lot of things in life,” said Baldwin after France dealt Gilas Pilipinas a 93-84 opening-day loss in the Fiba Olympic qualifying tournament at a loud Mall of Asia Arena.

READ: Tony Parker praises Gilas Pilipinas: ‘They made it tough on us’

The Filipinos will have that much time to quit moping over a game they could have won after erecting a 30-20 lead at the end of the first quarter. The defeat was in the road map the Gilas think tank drew up for a stint in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but that path could have been shortened exponentially had Gilas held on until the end.

But, as France coach Vincent Collet put it, Les Bleus just had too much class and international pedigree to fold up against a spirited start by the home team—and Badlwin agreed.

GALLERY: Philippines vs France in FIBA OQT group stage

“France did not panic,” said the Gilas mentor. “They just continued to pound away at us with their strengths. Tony Parker took control of the game midway in the second quarter.”

A victory over New Zealand Wednesday still puts the Philippines into the semifinals of the tournament, which offers a single ticket to the Olympics. And Baldwin knows where to begin fine-tuning his wards’ game.

READ: Pingris: We have to keep our heads up

Gilas Pilipinas had four assists in a nine-field goal first period and turned the ball over just once—an optimistic sign for a country whose basketball culture thrives on creativity and the blown possessions too much flair often brings.

But France immediately figured things out in the second period as Tony Parker and Nando De Colo took control, proving that France had more than just a size advantage over the Philippines.

READ: Gilas will live, die with the 3-pt shot

“When you see Parker and De Colo get 48 points between them at such a high percentage, you know, that’s where we felt we had to take care of the mismatch situations that would arise,” Baldwin admitted.

As De Colo and Parker hit their stride, the France defense also clamped down on the iso-heavy Filipinos, bottling up Andray Blatche’s plans to gallop his way to the hoop all night and taking away every option off Gilas’ high screen action for its dribble-savvy guards. Once France began forcing turnovers and missed shots, the tables began turning on the Filipinos.

READ: New Zealand more wary of Gilas Pilipinas

“From my standpoint, we had too many turnovers and most of them came in possessions where we didn’t organize our offense,” said Baldwin. “We’re an isolation team. We’re going to play a lot of isolation basketball. We felt we didn’t give guys who are good at isolation enough space.”

Gilas turned the ball over seven times in the second period against a solitary assist. That’s all it took for France to regain control of the match.

Even after the Filipinos rallied from 13 down in the second half to creep to within four, 85-81, with three minutes remaining, errors undid them. Gilas committed three crucial turnovers in that stretch and were limited to a forced Troy Rosario jumper as France unloaded eight straight points to put the game away.

And now it’s off to the match against New Zealand.

“It stings a little bit because we proved we had a chance in this game,” Baldwin said. “(But) I don’t think our coaching staff needs to give motivational speeches. We understand the task at hand.”