Team USA gets early test at FIBA World Cup

We were a bit surprised when we turned on the TV early Monday to catch the US team’s game against Turkey, the losing finalist when the Americans won the last edition of the FIBA World Cup in that country’s largest city Istanbul in 2010. The Turks, without its previous top star Hedo Turkoglu, now retired from international basketball, as well as the injured Ersan Ilyasova, Utah center Enes Kanter and former Boston Celtic Semih Erden, were giving the Americans a run for their money.

It would be just a matter of time though, we thought, remembering the 114-55 crushing Team USA administered on its first opponent, Finland.  

But the first quarter went and the score was tied at 16. The second quarter also played itself out, and the expected American juggernaut that was supposed to bury this depleted Turkish team never came as the latter stuck to the coattails of its favored rivals. Worse, the Turks even went ahead 40-35 at the half, banking on some world-class three-point shooting (how can you not call it that when you’re doing it against the mighty Yanks?), a strong stand off the boards (they outrebounded the US 21-12 in this stretch) and a discombobulating matchup zone that was made even more stifling by the failure of the US’ Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (the top scorer with 18 points in that cakewalk over the Finns) to hit the expected long bombs from three-point zone.

The Turks provided a blueprint for beating the Americans by controlling the tempo and slowing things down, reducing the game into a halfcourt battle. Turkey coach Ergin Ataman, one of the best strategists in Europe, knew that it was the only way his team could have a chance of upending the Americans, and he was right, at least for three quarters.

With the defending champions missing eight of their first nine three-point shots, and the Turks limiting the US’ second-chance opportunities with their domination of the boards, Team USA got frustrated and committed many early fouls. That sent the Turks to the line 18 times in the first half alone to the Americans’ five. Two straight three-pointers by Baris Hersek and 2009 Phoenix draftee Emir Preldzic gave the Turks a 38-32 lead, and with Turkey going 8-for-13 from the floor in the second quarter, the Turks proceeded to take that five-point edge at intermission.

But the US smartened up in the second half. Although Turkey continued with its hot shooting by hitting five three-pointers in the third period, the Americans tightened up their defense. They took advantage of their quick hands and a fullcourt press that frustrated Turkey’s ballhandlers into eight turnovers in the quarter alone en route to a total of 27. On offense, they looked more to Anthony Davis, who scored 17 points against Finland but was scoreless with just one rebound in the first half. The US’ starting center, touted as the next big star for his country in future international campaigns, scored 19 points in the second half to go with six rebounds, finishing a number of spectacular alley-oops coming from transition plays. 

Once the Americans’ running game began to crank up, it was just a matter of time before the Turks withered. With the score tied at 59 with 3:10 left in the third, the US closed out the period with a 7-1 burst to take a 66-60 lead on a basket by Kenneth Faried, who led the US with 22 points and eight rebounds. It then scored 10 consecutive points at the start of the final quarter to take control beyond recall 76-60.

The eventual 98-77 victory was Team USA’s 56^th consecutive dating back to the 2006 World Championship in Saitama, Japan, where the Americans beat Argentina 96-81 to take the bronze medal in the tournament, which Spain won by beating the US’ semifinal conqueror Greece 70-47 in the finals.  That winning streak has now actually been extended to 57 after the US’ 98-71 rout of New Zealand early this morning, where the Americans had no trouble this time putting the Kiwis away early and coasted from there. This 57-game string includes 39 in a row in Olympic and FIBA competitions as well as 18 exhibition games.  

The US’ victory over Turkey, its strongest opponent in Group C, actually ensured easy sailing for the Americans the rest of pool play, and it is not until the knockout stages of the games, where the strongest teams like Spain, Brazil (which incidentally was clobbered by the Spaniards 82-63 in group play), France, Lithuania, Slovenia and Greece will be around, that the defending champs are expected to encounter any rough sailing.  

The Americans still look the most formidable team out there along with Spain, but it will take more than they’ve shown thus far for them to live up to their billing as favorites.

For one, Curry, who we’ve personally thought would be the main source of firepower for Team USA with Kevin Durant’s last-minute withdrawal, has looked far from the All-Star that terrorized defenses with his deadly sniping from beyond the arc. Through the first two games, Curry shot only 4-for-17 from the field, 3-for-14 from three-point zone, and averaged 6.5 points. He shot 4-for-7 against New Zealand, 2-for-4 from three-point range, to score 12 points. 

The 6-foot-3 Golden State guard, regarded as the best pure shooter in the NBA today, has to hit his stride for this US team to go full throttle. Teammates like Thompson (who shot six points against Turkey), James Harden (14 points, seven assists) and Kyrie Irving, who had to do the heavy lifting (13 points, five assists) from the backcourt against Turkey with the comebacking Derrick Rose (two points in 17 minutes) struggling, can take up the slack against the Turkeys and Ukraines but against the likes of Spain, the margin for error becomes very little. Simply put, without Curry playing to the level he is capable of, there’ll be no gold strike for the US.

That’s how critical Curry is to this young edition of Team USA.

Amazing Gilas

Our gutsy Gilas Pilipinas team in Spain continues to astound particularly experts who didn’t expect much from the Filipinos as they tangled with the world’s powers with a severe handicap in size. The fighting silver-medalists in the FIBA Asia Championship are 0-3 in Group B, but each of these losses was marked by a heroic, gutsy stand, first against Croatia, to whom they lost in overtime 81-78, then against Greece to whom they bowed fighting 82-70, and then against world No. 3 Argentina, the latest team to taste the Pinoys’ never-say-die brand of game against whom they had a shot against until the last seconds before losing 85-81. 

The Philippines led the surprised Argentines in the early going, going up by as many as 10 points several times, the last at 32-22 with 6:58 left in the second quarter, as Ranidel de Ocampo, who topscored for the Filipinos with 18 points, Jayson Castro (11 points) and June Mar Fajardo (six points) led the attack without Andray Blatche, who was nursing an ailing right knee he hurt against Croatia and was on the bench for most of the first half with foul trouble.

But the Argentines, who were without the injured Manu Ginobili and Carlos Delfino but were still formidable with NBA veterans Luis Scola (the leading scorer in the 2010 Worlds who led the Argentines in this game with 19 points to go with seven rebounds), Pablo Prigioni (eight points), Walter Herrmann (10 points, five rebounds) and Andres Nocioni (nine points), came back with a 12-0 blast to take the lead for good 38-36 on a three-pointer with 1:21 left in the half by Marcos Mata, who scored 17 points, 15 of them on three-pointers, while grabbing nine boards as he served as the biggest thorn in the Filipinos’ side in this game.

Argentina then went on a 17-2 run to take a 68-53 lead with 1:31 left in the third period. Two consecutive three-pointers by Jimmy Alapag, which were among the five he made in the game, and a layup by Blatche, who had another double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds despite his late start, brought that down to 10 going into the last quarter.

The payoff period was as tight as it could be, thanks to Gilas’ tenacious stand. Two consecutive three-pointers (now we could see the value of the homerun bomb in international play) by Alapag, who finished with 15 points, and De Ocampo brought the country within two 71-69. Although the Argentines worked that back up to eight at 79-71, an Alapag trey and a Blatche layup made it 82-78. Another trey by Alapag, his last for the night, brought the Filipinos to just a point behind 82-81 with 2:09 to go before a split by Nocioni made it 83-81, time down to 46 seconds.  

That was when the play of the night took place as coach Chot Reyes worked a last-ditch play with 25 seconds to go.

With Castro tasked to work for that last shot that could tie or win it, the peppery Talk ‘N Text playmaker, the best point guard in last year’s FIBA Asia Championship, rose to shoot from beyond the arc with 13 seconds left. But with an Argentine defender about to block his shot, Castro mistakenly opted to drop the ball, then picked it up for a traveling violation. Had Castro instead allowed his shot to get blocked, there was a chance the Philippines could have kept possession despite the shot clock about to run out. A disconsolate Castro was then forced to foul Nocioni, who made both free throws to put it away.

Despite another heartbreaking loss, the Filipinos undoubtedly earned the respect and admiration of their rivals. Veteran Argentine coach Julio Lamas, who took over from former Argentine headman Sergio Hernandez in 2010, indicated that respect he had for Gilas by tightening his rotation to just eight players, which means he wanted only his best players inside and didn’t want to gamble with his second-stringers in trying to pull it off. Lamas was full of praise for Gilas afterwards, saying this is “the most difficult game” he had to coach in his life. That’s no trifling praise considering Lamas has presided over many an Argentine big game.

“(The) Philippines plays with more heart and relentlessness than any other team in the FIBA World Cup,” said Mark Jones of ESPN in an unequivocal tribute to the big-hearted Pinoys.

With the country now left with just two games in group play – against Puerto Rico and Senegal – it is faced with no choice but to win both games as Senegal scored a big upset win over Croatia 77-75 just before Gilas faced Argentina, putting the Senegalese at 2-1 after having also beaten Puerto Rico 82-75 earlier.

For the Philippines to make it to the 16-team knockout stage, it has to beat the Puerto Ricans tonight, and then knock off the Africans as well tomorrow to tie the latter at 2-3. In that case, the quotient system will be applied.  

It’s become an even taller order now, for sure, but who knows? If the Filipinos can keep up the tenacity they showed in their first three games, they certainly have a chance, even against the overachieving Senegalese at this point.

SHORTSHOTS: TheNBA has announced new rules to make baselines safer in a move ostensibly made to prevent injuries like the one Indiana All-Star Paul George suffered on August 1 during the Team USA training camp. The league has expanded the area behind the basket by requiring an extra foot of open space on both sides of the basket stanchion. The new rules would now allow only 20 camera positions, 10 on each baseline, to remain as against the 24 cameras last season and 40 during the 2010-11 regular season. Players often risked the possibility of crashing into a camera when tumbling out of bounds behind the basket. To reduce such risk, the NBA experimented with limiting photography spots during last season’s playoffs before deciding to make those changes permanent and mandating a bigger “escape lane,” which will now expand to four feet.  League president of operations Rod Thorn says changes were actually planned for “several years” and teams were informed in July, even before George suffered his gruesome injury after crashing into the stanchion… The LA Clippers traded Jared Dudley and a 2017 protected first-round pick to Milwaukee for Carlos Delfino, Miroslav Raduljica and a 2015 second-round pick.  The 6-foot-6 Delfino, who turned 32 on August 29 and missed all of last season with a right-foot injury, and the 26-year-old Raduljica, a seven-foot, 250-pound center, were, however, waived three days later by the Clips. Dudley, who has two years and $8.5 million left on his contract, averaged 6.9 points and 2.2 rebounds while shooting a career-low 43.8 percent from the field and 36.0 percent from three-point range… More Clippers news: Doc Rivers has agreed to a new deal that will, in effect, keep him with the Clips through the end of the 2018-19 season.  Rivers, who joined the team last year, will continue to serve as its head coach and president of basketball operations during the duration of the deal, which will reportedly pay him in excess of $10 million annually. The 52-year-old Rivers had two years remaining on the three-year, $21 million deal he signed last year when he came to Los Angeles from the Boston Celtics. He led the Clippers to their best record in franchise history (57-25) and a second straight Pacific Division title. Rivers was also promoted from vice president to president of basketball operations during the offseason as former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over as the team’s new owner, buying it from the Sterling Family Trust for a record $2 billion… The LA Lakers have signed Fil-Am Jordan Clarkson, the 46th pick in this year’s draft whose rights the team acquired from Washington on draft night.  The 6-5 Clarkson impressed Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak with his play in the Las Vegas Summer League, where he led the Lakers’ entry in scoring with 15.8 points per game and rebounding (5.0) while shooting 42.1 percent (8-19) from beyond the arc. The former Missouri guard was named Second Team All-SEC in his lone season with the Tigers. –Rappler.com

Bert A. Ramirez has been a freelance sportswriter/columnist since the ’80s, writing mostly about the NBA and once serving as consultant and editor for Tower Sports Magazine, the longest-running locally published NBA magazine, from 1999 to 2008. He has also written columns and articles for such publications as Malaya, Sports Digest, Winners Sports Weekly, Pro Guide, Sports Weekly, Sports Flash, Sports World, Basketball Weekly and the FIBA’s International Basketball, and currently writes a sports column for QC and Metro Manila Life as well as, until this summer, a weekly blog for BostonSports Desk.  A former corporate manager, Bert has breathed, drunk and slept sports most of his life.