Leader in double-double, rebounds: Blatche strong MVP contender

SEVILLE, Spain – Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Andray Blatche would be a major contender for the MVP award if only the team could make it past the preliminary round and go deep in the knockout stage of the 2014 FIBA World Cup.

Blatche, among the over 40 NBA players in the 24-team meet, paced everybody in double-double average and in rebounds, ranked fourth in scoring and was running sixth in efficiency through the first four days of the competition.

The nine-year NBA veteran and Senegal’s Gorgui Dieng were actually the only two double-double performers in the tourney with Blatche logging 21 points and 13.7 rebounds per game and the Senegalese norming 22 markers and 11.7 boards.

In efficiency, Blatche (66.0) was at joint sixth with Slovenian Goran Dragic and Dominican Francisco Garcia, behind Dieng (80.0), Spain’s Pau Gasol (76.0), Argentina’s Luis Scola (73.0) and the USA’s Anthony Davis (70.0) and Kenneth Faried (70.0).

As Gilas’ lone dominant post presence, Blatche averaged a tournament-best 13.7 rebounds a game, followed by Dieng (11.7), Turkey’s Omar Asik (9.3), Dominican Eulis Baez (9.0), Iran’s Hamed Haddadi (9.0), Dominican Eloy Vargas, and Croatian Ante Tomic (8.7).

Blatche was joint fourth in scoring with Garcia, not far behind leaders Gasol (23.7), Luis Scola of Argentina (23.0) and Dieng.

Rounding up the Top 10 scorers were Dragic (20.3), Puerto Rico’s Jose Barea (20.0), Croatia’s Bojan Bogdanovic (19.0), Anthony Davis (19.0) and Renaldo Balkman (18.0).

Blatche also figured well in steals at joint 10th in the category paced by the US’ James Harden (nine) and Stephen Curry (eight).

The downside was that Blatche was also among the tops on error department. Iran’s one-two forces Haddadi and Nikkhah Bahrami have committed a combined number of 33 while Blatche has turned the ball over 14 times.

Despite a mere 9.3 minutes of playing average, Junmar Fajardo was among the leaders in blocks, right outside the Top 10 with three against three fouls.

Korean Jonghyun Lee topped the category with nine, followed by Senegal’s Hamady Ndiaye (eight) and Gasol, Korean Jongkyu Kim, and Vargas with seven apiece.

In efficiency, Fajardo was the next best placed Filipino player at No. 72.

Jimmy Alapag was the only other Gilas player in the Top 100 at No. 84.

Alapag ranked No. 17 in assists in a tie with NBA stars Curry and Kyrie Irving. Leading the playmaking department were Finnish Petteri Koponen (7.3), Argentines Facundo Campazzo (6.0) and Pablo Prigioni (6.0), Spanish Ricky Rubio (6.0) and Ukraine’s Eugene Jeter (5.7).

Alapag was also right there among the best in three-point shooting. He’s one of only 30 players shooting at least 50 percent.

Deadliest were Lithuanian teammates Jonas Maciulis (75 percent) and Adas Juskevicius (71.4 percent).