Difficult conditions

CHANGSHA – Nobody thought it would be easy beating China at the 28th FIBA Asia Championships here. And when the smoke of battle finally cleared last Saturday, it was evident that for the Philippines to win, Gilas had to play a perfect or near-perfect game to overcome China’s depth, size, athletic ability and homecourt advantage.

Gilas coach Tab Baldwin said the Philippines played China for the gold medal under “difficult conditions.” So what else is new? There was a foul-up with the bus that took the team to the gym but assistant coach Norman Black said that was no problem. The delay was only for five minutes, he clarified.

During the warm-ups on the court before the game, the Philippine rhythm was rudely interrupted when all of a sudden, maintenance men showed up with a ladder to remove the net from the ring and install new strings. While China was taking practice shots and raising a nice sweat, Gilas had to be content dribbling against each other, stretching, walking around and wondering what the heck was going on.

The crowd was, as expected, boisterous and also as expected, rude. As the host country, China should’ve been more gracious. When Manila hosted the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships, the home fans cheered for Gilas lustily but weren’t antagonistic towards Iran in the final. There was respect for the visitors.

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But last Saturday, FIBA officials had to restrain an accredited Chinese photographer from scuffling with a Filipino lensman who was threatened for shielding Gilas player Calvin Abueva from crowd abuse. The Chinese photographer repeatedly hurled invectives at Abueva from press row and the Filipino lensman was within his rights to tell the pompous heckler to pipe down. Then, rowdy Chinese fans behind the Gilas bench kept screaming unprintables at the Filipino players, even challenging them to a fistfight. In the lower box section, a gang of Chinese fans kept raising their middle finger and shouting nasty things at a small group of Filipino supporters, including Andray Blatche’s boyhood pal Bryan Extra, who were cheering their lungs out particularly when Gilas sprinted to a 15-10 lead in the first period.

Officiating was unfortunately below par and the referees appeared to be influenced by the crowd. Gilas players were mauled on the court but the calls hardly came their way. Gabe Norwood was struck on the face in full view of a referee, let go of the ball because of the contact and China was given possession because there was no whistle for a foul. But no excuses. While officiating was not quite championship-caliber, it was no reason for Gilas’ loss. Baldwin said China was the better team that night and he was right. The Philippines’ defense was phenomenal, holding China down to 38 percent field goal shooting, its worst of any game in the entire tournament.

China’s previous worst showing from the field was 40 percent in beating Korea, 76-73. The Chinese hit 53 percent against Singapore, 55 percent against Jordan, 54 percent against Kazakhstan, 52 percent against Lebanon, 48 percent against Qatar, 56 percent against India and 46 percent against Iran. So shooting only 38 percent against the Philippines was a credit to Gilas’ tough defense.

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On offense, the Philippines faltered. Gilas hit only 6-of-24 from beyond the arc with Terrence Romeo and Calvin Abueva a combined 0-of-3. The Philippines also missed 11 free throws – curiously, China’s winning margin was 11 points. Abueva shot only 3-of-8 from the line, including a stretch of four straight misses and Romeo was 3-of-6. Gilas couldn’t even cash in on two free throws off China technicals. As a team, Gilas fired only 35 percent from the floor.

Gilas assistant coach Joseph Uichico said the game was winnable. The turning point came when the Philippines brought down a double-digit lead to eight in the fourth period but the surge was stymied by turnovers and missed free throws. The gameplan was to take away China’s inside dominance with a zone defense and it worked as Yi Jianlian was held to 4-of-14 field goals and Zhou Qi 4-of-9. In fact, Gilas outscored China in points from the point, 30-26. But while the Philippines struggled from the perimeter, China delivered 9-of-24 triples.

What made the experience far from pleasant was how the Chinese organizers appeared to tolerate scalping.  It’s possible the organizers had a take in the black market profits. A ticket with a face value equivalent to P1,850 sold openly for P11,000. Scalpers were all over the place outside the venue and buyers couldn’t get a bargain.

In the semifinals, the Philippine game against Japan was delayed 30 minutes because organizers printed a new batch of tickets to accommodate Filipino demand. For the final, hundreds of Filipinos weren’t accommodated in the building as tickets were prioritized for the homecrowd. It was hard enough to beat China on the court. It got even harder with the dreaded hometown advantage.