Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
TAIPEI – With the way Filipinos are sized, the outside shot remains to be Team Philippines’ equalizing factor in international games.
Gilas Pilipinas’ dismal performance from the perimeter on Wednesday night, when the Filipinos went down to South Korea after going 0-for-26 from three-point range, is the exact nightmare that coach Chot Reyes doesn’t want to have when the Asian Championship comes around next month.
“We need to make those shots,” Reyes said. “In Asia, we have to have our three-point shooters connecting.”
To be ranged against bigger and equally agile foes in Lebanon from Aug. 8, the Filipinos don’t hold an advantage against any team in the field and would need to be at their finest form every night.
READ: Gilas falls to South Korea
With his 24-man pool to be split practically in two with the Philippines to defend the Southeast Asian Games gold medal from August 20 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it’s not difficult to conclude that all of the great shooters will be in the team Reyes will form for Lebanon.
Reyes will have all the tools in addressing that aspect of the Gilas game for Beirut, with Jason Castro, Terrence Romeo and Matthew Wright, RR Pogoy and Jio Jalalon candidates to make that team.
The big question is who will be the main outside guns in Malaysia.
READ: It’s final: PBA veteran superstars to beef up Gilas in Fiba Asia in Lebanon
Pro rookies Kevin Ferrer and Mike Tolomia and sophomore Baser Amer and amateurs Kiefer Ravena, Kobe Paras and Bobby Ray Parks form the core of the SEAG team that will try to uphold Southeast Asian supremacy dating back to the 1991 edition in Manila.
The first and only time that the Filipinos failed to win the basketball gold in the SEAG was also in Kuala Lumpur in 1989.
Reyes, though, is not that much concerned defeating the field from the outside in Malaysia, with Christian Standhardinger slated to see action there.
“For the SEA Games, we can figure out ways to overpower the opposition,” Reyes said. “It’s a lot different in Asia.”