Will you rise with Gilas Pilipinas?

MANILA, Philippines — “There are no words.”

These were the first lines Larry Fonacier uttered in the postgame presscon after Gilas Pilipinas was subdued by Taiwan, 84-79, in the last day of preliminary round action in the 2013 FIBA Asia Men’s Championships.

“We just have to move on to the next round,” said Fonacier, with an obvious tone of sadness.

If you look at his stat-line, you wouldn’t think he’d have any reason to fret. He played a helluva game, scoring 21 points on the strength of 5 triples. He, along with veteran Jimmy Alapag, were the sparks off the bench that made up for yet another slow start by the home team.

Nobody from the press asked Larry any questions after those two lines. They could see how the loss weighed down on him like a ton of bricks.

Sorrow and confusion were practically palpable all throughout the Mall of Asia Arena. Several people came up to me asking what the implications are. Who would the next foes be? Are we definitely going to face the Chinese in the knockout round? Are we done for? Why did we lose this game?

And it all happened so fast, like a car blindsiding you as you speed through a clear highway.

Like a diesel engine

To try and put things in perspective, however, let’s reflect on a few things — our slow starts, our opponents’ shooting, and our attitude going into round two.

In all our first three assignments, we haven’t enjoyed a fast start. In fact, we trailed after the first quarter in all three contests. Against Saudi Arabia, we were behind 14-16. Against Jordan, we trailed 16-20. And yesterday against the hot-shooting Taiwanese, we lagged behind again, 19-30. Of course, we always managed to rally afterwards and, for two of those three games, actually able to pull off wins, but it’s definitely not a good habit moving forward.

I have a nagging feeling our slow starts are because of, ironically, the fact that Gilas is playing at home. Playing at home and in front of one’s loud and boisterous countrymen is a potential double-edged sword.

On one hand, players can feel more motivated, and they can potentially perform at higher-than-usual levels. On the other hand, a home team can play “gigil” — too eager to please the cheering throng. Sometimes (like those three straight games, for instance), this can cause a team to fumble, to overshoot, or to be a little too aggressive in making something happen. I think this has been the case so far for Gilas.

I think the pressure of playing at home, in front of 15,000++ screaming Filipinos may have made them a little too “gigil” to start each game. The flipside, of course, is that the crowd also fueled Gilas’s comebacks against all three Group A squads. I especially loved the crowd against Jordan. It was perhaps a couple of thousand people smaller than last night’s audience versus Taiwan, but, man, it was noisier. The chants of DE-FENSE were much scarier in that Jordan encounter.

Foes scorching from downtown

The next thing I want to reflect on is our opponents’ shooting from long range. In all, the first three teams we faced made a total of 31 three-pointers. In terms of shooting accuracy, we let them make 36% of their long toms. That’s not too bad if we consider how we have connected on 37% of our own threes, too, but, like what we saw last night, against a quality team like Taiwan (we will face teams of similar quality from this point forward, of course), we just shouldn’t give up too many threes.

Before the Philippine game, coach Hsu Chin-Che’s wards connected on 42% of their threes, but against us they shot 50%. Against Saudi Arabia in their previous game, the Taiwanese hit 17 treys and against us they hit 15. The only time they didn’t shoot well was against Jordan, when they made just 6/17 from rainbow country. I don’t think, however, that Jordan may have played better perimeter D. Perhaps we can chalk it up to the fact that it was Day 1, and the Taiwanese gunners were still trying to find their bearings.

I think this particular aspect is significant because all of our next three opponents — Japan, Qatar, and Hong Kong — have great shooters who can inflict the kind of damage Taiwan did. Japan has Kosuke Kanamaru and KJ Matsui, Qatar has Jarvis Hayes and Daoud Musa Daoud, while Hong Kong has Chan Siu Wing (all of those guys are hitting at a 50%-or-better clip from beyond the arc). If Gilas is unable to limit its foes’ perimeter production, then things will be much tougher than we want.

Are we ready?

The last thing I want to reflect on is our attitude going into the second round. By OUR, I mean the Filipino people. The team itself, I am sure, will be ready. These guys are warriors. These guys are pros. These guys have been through a lot of defeats. They know and have what it takes to bounce back, and they will. At least for me, however, the bigger question is will we, the Filipino people, continue to rally behind them and give them that extra push?

I ask this because we Filipinos are generally a very result-oriented lot. Seldom do we really appreciate magnificence if the end result is a loss. We tend to lose heart and give in to critical urges when our teams falter. We can see this with our reactions to Manny Pacquiao’s losses or more so when our favorite PBA/UAAP/NCAA squad bites the dust.

If we want Gilas to have a landmark performance in this tournament, then we have to stop being fair weather fans. These are our countrymen laying themselves on the line, and they deserve our hearts no matter what happens.

Right after the game, Facebook and Twitter were already filled with criticisms of the coaches and the players.

“Dapat ito ginawa.”

“Dapt hindi na siya pinasok.”

Believe me when I say that I understand the heartache (BELIEVE ME), but if we hope our guys will be stronger because of this loss, then we have to be stronger, too. We have to be strong for them because when it comes down to those win-or-lose moments, those critical times when the game is on the line, they will play through the pain and exhaustion because we pushed them to. So many other things are weighing down on them already, and, as fans, we cannot — SHOULD NOT — count among those things.

So for the next three days, Gilas takes to the court again. They will be one win short of where they hoped to be, but they will remain steadfast in their purpose to make us proud. They will fight. They will lay everything on the line.

And we should be there with them. Every difficult, painful, and tiring step of the way. – Rappler.com