Gilas-Pilipinas bounces back in a big way, crushes Japan

Gilas-Pilipinas picked itself up in a truly big way.
With Marcus Douthit dominating and their outside guns hitting their mark, the Filipinos displayed unforgiving form and made minced meat of Japan, 90-71 at the start of second round action on Monday in the 27th Fiba-Asia Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
“I’m a firm believer that in life, you must learn to get up after taking a stumble,” Gilas-Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes said moments after the win, which gave the Filipinos a 2-1 card and third place in Group E.
“We took a stumble (against Chinese-Taipei) the other night, and we’ve put that behind us now,” Reyes added after getting 19 points and 10 rebounds in just 25 minutes from the 6-foot-10 Douthit.
The form that the Filipinos played with against the Japanese was a far departure from the fourth quarter stand that they showed against Chinese-Taipei, which rallied from 13 points down at the start of the fourth quarter on Saturday to win, 84-79.
Team Philippines gave the Japanese no quarters and asked for none, playing physical yet clean defense while being so fluid offensively as the Filipinos knocked down 12-of-20 triple tries to handily win despite losing the battle off the boards, 42-29.
A great defensive blanket employed on naturalized Japanese JR Sakuragi and the talented Kosuke Takeuchi took the fight out of Japan late in the third period.
Douthit came out a different player against the Japanese, looking for the hoop early to shoot nine of his total in the first period and 13 at the half, which the Filipinos took, 46-36.
Jeff Chan then opened up the third period with consecutive triples and the Filipinos went on to build leads of as many as 25 points in the quarter to all but put the game to bed and take a positive feeling going into Tuesday’s crucial encounter with Qatar.
The Qataris remained undefeated following a 75-61 thumping of Jordan in the day’s first game after getting 15 points from Jarvis Hayes and 14 from Yasseen Musa.
Qatar rose to 3-0 like Gilas-Pilipinas tormentor Chinese-Taipei, which waltzed its way to an easy 74-43 victory over Hong Kong where the Taiwanese connected on 11-of-19 tries from beyond the arc.
Iran, meanwhile, hardly worked up a sweat in conquering India, 102-58, in one of the earlier games.
The Iranians, who are also at 3-0 and who have already beaten fellow powerhouses South Korea and defending champion China, got five players in twin digits led by Hamed Afagh’s 16 points.
National Basketball Association veteran Hamed Hadadi had 12 points and seven rebounds despite playing just 16 minutes.
The other close game played during the day was the upset axe that the Chinese dodged against Kazakhstan, narrowly escaping with a 73-67 victory.
Reedy shooting forward Peng Zhou scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, including the most telling blows that prevented the Kazakhs from posting what would have been the biggest upset in the 15-nation tournament.
The 6-foot-7 Zhou hit seven straight points in a crucial stretch that helped erase a 63-62 Kazakhstan lead with just over three minutes left.
“It was a difficult win for us,” Zhou said through an interpreter. “Our team is going through difficult times, but we will be better. We will show our nation (in our next games) that we will be better.”
The Chinese didn’t play former NBA standout Yi Jianlian for the second straight game, opting to keep him fresh and healthy for the knockout stages that begin on Friday.
Yi, who saw action for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Washington Wizards and who is Team China’s biggest star, suited up but sat at the farthest end of the bench, and was even seen texting messages to someone during the game.
“Against Qatar, we have to be able to switch our thinking back to a different style all together,” Reyes continued during the winning coach’s interview, referring to playing a foe on Tuesday that is vastly different from their last two opponents.
The Taiwanese and the Japanese both play conservatively, almost traditional, according to Reyes, who pointed out that the Qataris are very westernized in their approach with several of their players having seen collegiate exposure in the United States.
Winning lopsidedly against Japan also afforded Reyes the luxury of giving Gary David the confidence to shoot.
After going just 2-of-18 from the field and 0-for-7 from three-point range in the Philippines’ first three games, David finally connected to a trey and finished with five points.
And the Filipino crowd – which understands the game pretty well – gave David all the support he needed as they chanted his name in the dying minutes egging him to shoot.
Chan hit 4-of-5 attempts from three-point range and Ranidel De Ocampo’s nine points all came from long distance that underscored a hot shooting night for the Filipinos.