Defending Fiba-Asia champions leaned on Memphis Grizzlies center Hamed Haddadi and superstar swingman Samad Nikkah Bahrami who combined for 46 points to turn back a game Team Pilipinas in a matchup between two countries with unpopular presidents and citizens who have taken to the microblogging platform Twitter. It can be recalled that protesters in Iran used Twitter earlier this year to protest the electoral victory of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while Twitter trends have been affected by various Filipino memes, most notably former President Corazon Aquino’s death, but also various other crap like the last SONA, the UP-Ateneo upset, and the book blockade.



Iran's Samad Nikkah Bahrami (right) drives hard against Jared Dillinger

Anyway, the game. Iran capitalized on another slow start by the Philippines, taking a 13-point lead at the end of the first quarter. The lead ballooned to as much as 24 points in the second quarter, and the game looked like it was going to be another cakewalk for the Persians, but timely sniping from James Yap and Gabe Norwood cut the lead down to a more manageable 17 points at the half.

Wary of the Filipino trend of strong third quarters, Iran went on a 6-0 tear to start the third quarter, with Bahrami, perhaps the best scorer in all of Asia, and Haddadi leading the way. Hot shooting from the Philipines righted the ship somewhat, and a James Yap buzzer-beater cut the lead down to 16 at the end of the third.

Team Pilipinas made things much more interesting in the fourth quarter, with Willie Thriller*, Jared Dillinger, and Yap raining three-pointers and cutting the lead down to 8. But the Philippines couldn’t capitalize on several defensive stops, as Haddadi’s huge shadow loomed over the paint, and Iran held on for the victory.

(* - Note to all broadcasters, bloggers, and fans: Let’s stop with this Willie “The Thriller” Miller garbage, and just go with Willie Thriller. It’s cooler, and it rolls off the tongue. Say it with me: Willie Thriller. Thank you.)

Unlike the previous games in the tournament, defense was the big problem for the Philippines, with our unathletic big men having all kinds of problems with Haddadi, and our swingmen unable to keep Bahrami out of the lane.

But there are still a lot of things to take away from this loss. Consider that without that awful first quarter, we pretty much stood toe-to-toe with the Iranians, who played HARD all game, by the way, and never took their foot off the gas pedal – Haddadi played 39 minutes and Bahrami 35, in the 40-minute game. We played much better defense in the fourth quarter, as Yeng Guiao played two centers, Asi Taulava and Mick Pennisi, together for most of the quarter, with one of them (usually Pennisi) camped out in the lane to disrupt Bahrami’s drives to the basket. We also shot well from the outside, hitting 16 three-pointers at a 37% clip, but it’s actually better than that when you consider that a couple of those shots were desperation attempts (i.e. Willie Miller’s halfcourt heave at the end of the second quarter, Sonny Thoss’s balibag-tae to beat the shot-clock buzzer).

So we’re playing well, not well enough to beat the Asian champs but enough to give them a mild scare. We should be able to take care of business against Kuwait tomorrow, and then it’s on to the knockout quarterfinal round.

We would most probably be matched up against Jordan in the quarters. They beat Team Pilipinas pretty badly in their debut game at the Jones Cup, but the Philippine team has gotten much better since. Better than Jordan? I don’t know. Good enough to beat Jordan on a very good day? I would imagine so.