If you watched the FIBA finals match of Gilas Pilipinas and China last night, you’ll easily see notice that there’s something wrong.
After Gilas’ heart-crushing defeat in the hands of China, 78-67, let’s dive back and take a look at what could have led Gilas to lose.
Before the game:
Hours before the game, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) took to twitter his frustration at how the FIBA organizers mistreated the Philippine team.
Photo taken from: Twitter.com
According to MVP’s tweets, their Gilas electric bus was delayed because it “failed to charge,” giving Gilas less time to warm up in the court.
There were also problems concerning tickets for some of the coach and assistant coaches.
It doesn’t end there. A photo of maintenance people “fixing” the ring while Gilas was doing shooting practice minutes before the match have been making its rounds on social media.
Photo taken from: Facebook.com
During the game
During play, the referees made possession hard for Gilas by calling out violations that favored the Chinese team. This left a lot of people questioning the credibility of the referees.
Photo taken from: Twitter.com
But what seemed to be bias officiating wasn’t the only thing that caused Gilas to yield to the towering Chinese team; there were a lot missed opportunities from Gilas as well.
Jayson Castro only scored six points in the entire game, while Andray Blatche got only a total of 17 points.
According to FIBA’s stat sheet, Gilas only got 25% 3 points field goal shots, much lower than the 29% they got when they went against Palestine in the opening game.
They also got 58 % freethrows and 42 % on the 2 point area. China, on the other hand, had 64 % on the free throws and 38 % from the inside.
Despite Gilas’ defeat, the road to Rio is not totally close just yet. Philippines has a chance by going through the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament from July 5 to 16, 2016 and battle 18 other teams for a shot to qualify for Rio.
What can you say about last night’s game? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
