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CEBU CITY—Gilas Pilipinas has a lot of catching up to do, particularly on defense.
Coach Chot Reyes made this assessment after steering the Nationals to a come-from-behind 125-112 victory over the PBA Visayas All-Stars Sunday night.
“There’s still a lot to work to do, especially on the defensive end,” Reyes said after Gilas’ first game as a “complete” team at Hoopsdome in Lapu-Lapu City.
“In all our games we gave up 60 points in the first half … so that’s a very alarming situation for us.”
Against the Visayans, the Nationals trailed 59-62 at the half before pouring it on in the fourth quarter.
Against the Luzon All-Stars in Lucena City, the Nationals again fell behind, 55-62, before hitting their stride and cruising to a 122-111 victory.
In their opener against the Mindanao All-Stars in Cagayan de Oro City, the Nationals trailed 55-59 at the half and settled for a 114-114 tie.
Reyes isn’t putting the blame on the Nationals, of course. He knew that the teams they faced in the PBA All-Star Week were all explosive.
“Admittedly the opposition is very strong,” said Reyes, who will try to steer Gilas to the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) title from May 12 to 18 at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “All are shooters, they’ve got very good point guards who know how to create.”
“But still, the No. 1 thing we need to fix is defense. And No. 2, I think offensively, the players aren’t that familiar with each other yet. That’s what we are going to focus on in the next 10 days, to be able to understand each other’s tendencies.”
Reyes cited as example Jio Jalalon, a newcomer to Gilas like Allein Maliksi, Matthew Wright, RR Pogoy and Raymond Almazan. He said the Star rookie delivered against the Visayans only in the second half when he was given the task of stopping LA Tenorio.
The 6-foot-8 Almazan was June Mar Fajardo’s chief backup at the slot during the tuneup games, in the absence of naturalized center Andray Blatche, who was expected to arrive Monday night from the United States.