Impressive Gilas overwhelms Japan

After a heartbreak loss to TPE, Smart Gilas bounced back with a 90-71 victory over Japan. This is the type of Smart Gilas team Filipinos are expecting, and we were treated by a great team performance.

First, offense. The team shot a remarkable 49.2% from the field and 60% (12/20) from long range. Thanks to the great shooting from Chan and De Ocampo (who made a statement why he belongs to the team). Ball sharing, they are pretty consistent sharing the ball. Ball movement has always been good, this resulted for 24 assists in the game. Including two nice assists by De Ocampo to Aguilar that rocked the arena.

Next, defense, the team was able to hold Japan to 37.1% shooting and also forcing 19 turnovers. The only thing positive for Japan is their rebounding. They out-rebounded Gilas 48-30, including 21 offensive rebounds. However their poor shooting and turnovers hurt them throughout the game.

All in all, it was a good team effort by Smart Gilas.

My observation is that, Gilas still have troubles defending the the screen and roll. The guards are very much concerned on the three-point shooting that they don't go under the screen. This results to collapses by the defense and players become out of position in these scenarios. This is a concern because many teams use this offense. Hopefully Gilas can become better defending the screen and roll in the upcoming games. Offensively, their own version of screen and roll is much better compared when they were against TPE. However, they can still improve on that. They still have not put a shooter at the corners to spread the floor more efficiently. Douthit was much better this time and if he can deliver the same numbers every game, I like the team's chances.

So keep it up Smart Gilas. Laban!