Powerade Team Pilipinas stalwarts Jared Dillinger, Gabe Norwood, Asi Taulava, Jayjay Helterbrand, Japeth Aguilar, and Ryan Reyes hit the streets of Beijing shortly after the Fiba-Asia Championships and sampled some of the exotic local food. Dillinger and Norwood are both providing updates on Twitter, along with other PBA players Kelly Williams and his brother-in-law Lamont Waters.

The late, great David Halberstam had an awesome quote from Hall of Fame forward Julius Erving about professionalism: “Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.”

I had been dreading to write about Team Pilipinas’ 81-70 loss to Jordan in the Fiba-Asia knockout quarterfinals since the end of the game. Part of it is because of the way it went down; it was a very winnable game that could have gone our way had the ball bounced a bit differently, and losses like that are particularly hard to swallow. Another part is because it would feel like a eulogy, when in fact it shouldn’t; there are two more classification games remaining, and Team Pilipinas could still salvage fifth place, which would be our best placing in this tournament in two decades. I especially wanted to steer clear of the useless ‘what if’ exercise – what if Ryan Reyes and Kelly Williams hadn’t gotten injured, what if this team had six weeks instead of three weeks to train, what if Japeth Aguilar hadn’t gotten hurt at the start of the tournament, etc. Especially since the tournament isn’t over yet.

So I guess I’ll just talk about the game. I usually am not a fan of the boxscore to tell the story of the game – Rockets GM Daryl Morey, the NBA’s foremost proponent of statistical analysis, detests the boxscore – but in the case of this game, the boxscore tells pretty much the whole story. That is, Team Pilipinas got killed by Jordan off the offensive boards, giving up 17 which led to 17 extra possessions for them. The boxscore only shows that Jordan shot a blistering 55% from 2-point range, but I suspect that if you took away second-chance opportunities, that number would be closer to the 38% that we shot from inside the arc. Otherwise, the team did a good job – they had four more three-pointers than Jordan (although the 12 threes made were 2 to 3 fewer than Team Pilipinas has been making the past few games) and limited their turnovers to just 12 (Jordan had 11). Gabe Norwood and Jared Dillinger, in particular, played like heroes.

But rebounding was such a problem, especially with our lack of quickness and athleticism in the frontcourt, that the Team Pilipinas guards had to drop back to help out on the boards to gang-rebound (James Yap and Dillinger led the team in caroms). It’s a great adjustment, but it affected our balance that it made it easier for Jordan to get back on defense to prevent the team from getting fast breaks.

Earlier in the tournament, after the game versus Chinese Taipei, I expressed my worries about the lack of athleticism in the frontcourt for the Philippine team. My exact words:

I’m worried now about our big men, not necessarily their effort (I know they’re trying their best), but their ability. With Aguilar struggling, Kelly Williams out, and Ranidel left off the team, there’s just no athleticism in the frontcourt apart from Raymundo. We always knew that we’re going to execute offense better, and games like this show that we’re going to shoot well from time to time. But we can’t do anything about our unathletic big guys. Pucha, paano mo papagalawin si Thoss na parang hindi mabigat yung bayag niya? Hindi naman na-ko-coach yun.

It has been the biggest problem for the team all tournament, although it’ll be buried in the media behind stories of how we don’t have enough three-point shooting. Check out this boxscore then of the Korea-Lebanon match and note that Team Pilipinas made more threes than either of those teams, at only a shade lower clip than the Koreans. Of course, the box score doesn't tell the whole story, but you get the point.

Can we improve on our shooting? Sure. But except for the Korea game, it’s not the reason we’ve been losing.

Anyway, I included the Dr. J (not Andy Jao) quote above not just for myself but for the Team Pilipinas players, who will go up against Qatar this afternoon at 2 PM. They’ve taken their lumps all over the place, but this corner is proud of them and the way they’ve played, considering the circumstances. They may not feel like going out there after this big loss, but I trust that when the game tips off, they’ll be there playing their hearts out and making us proud.

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

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.

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.

South Korea made the Team Pilipinas snipers look like the Wonder Girls (*point-clap-clap-point-clap*) tonight as they held the Philippines to miserable shooting all game long. Willie Miller, Jayjay Helterbrand, James Yap, and Gabe Norwood threw up enough bricks to build a full house (heh), while Korea capitalized on missed rotations by the Philippine defense down the stretch en route to winning their third straight game in the competition.

The lone bright spot for the Philippines was Cyrus Baguio, who dazzled the crowd (and players from both teams) with ankle-breaking drives and acrobatic layups, showing swagger that turned Tianjin’s shiny hardcourt into the concrete jungles from his hometown Iligan City. But Korea made timely adjustments, making sure to foul Baguio each time he crossed halfcourt on fastbreak opportunities.

Team Pilipinas missed Japeth Aguilar for the second straight game. With Kerby Raymundo still unable to find his rhythm in this tournament, Yeng Guiao was forced to play the corpse of Sonny Thoss extended minutes at power forward. I know Ranidel de Ocampo is a couple of inches shorter, but he’s a better outside shooter and he’s quicker on defensive rotations.

Tomorrow is an off-day for the competition, but on Monday, Team Pilipinas will be facing a dangerous Chinese-Taipei team that almost beat Iran on the opening day of competitions. If there’s a silver lining to take away from this game, it’s that this team goes all out with effort and heart, and if we show that again on Monday, we ought to win that game.

Ok, before going on with my report on Powerade Team Pilipinas-Korea game in the 31st William Jones Cup, which ended with a 83-80 loss for the Nationals, here’s a message to all Filipino basketball fans:

CHILL THE FUCK OUT.

SERIOUSLY.

Understand that this is basically training camp for Powerade Team Pilipinas, that they’re not really here to win, and that they’re using this to get to know their plays, get into shape, and get used to international play. The team is making good progress.

The Jones Cup doesn’t mean shit. In 2007, we played here as well, just like a bunch of other national teams who were preparing for the Fiba-Asia Olympic qualifiers. That year, Jordan won the Jones Cup and looked invincible. You know where they placed in the Fiba-Asia tournament? 5th.

Look, everyone wants to win. If I had it my way, I’ll have the Philippine team winning every game by 50 points. But this is the hand we’re dealt, and while it’s not ideal, we ought to keep looking at the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture is that on August 6, the tournament to qualify for next year’s World Basketball Championships start. If we make it out of the preliminary bracket, we can move on to the quarterfinals, and then who knows? The top three qualifiers will make it to the Worlds, and the tournament runs through August 16.

Are we playing our best basketball now? Of course not. Are we getting better? Yes. Are we going to be better by August 6? Absolutely. Does that mean we can make it out of the preliminary bracket, over Japan and Korea? I don’t know. But I like our chances.

Anyway, the game. Korea started with guns blazing in the first quarter, hitting two three-pointers in the early minutes, but Powerade Team Pilipinas inched closer at the break to cut the deficit, 22-17. The Nationals tightened the screws on defense and made a run in the second quarter to take the lead briefly, but Korea closed the half strongly to take a 3-point lead, 38-35.