Just finished watching Greece vs. Philippines (Gilas Pilipinas), and the latter played another great game, especially June Mar Fajardo who is finally starting to fulfill his great promise as a dominant big man locally and internationally. And Giannis "The Greek Freak" Antetokounmpo was held to only three points after scoring 11 against Senegal. But the Greeks were simply put a much better, bigger, mobile team overall than Croatia, so much so that the former could eat the latter alive and whole when they face each other next. The only bad things however were the poor sportsmanship displayed by Greece's Ioannis Bourousis when he shoved Jimmy Alapag right after the game and Andray Blatche hurting his right knee, although it doesn't seem to be that serious and am confident that he can still play through the rest of the team's schedule.
Even way before the game started, I could already feel, even in the middle of my niece Gabby's second birthday celebration, that Gilas has a slim chance of winning against the Greeks. This given the fact that the latter walloped Senegal by 23 points the day before. Nevertheless, I still hoped against hope that Gilas can finally pull off the mother of all miracles by shaming the Hellenic warriors right on the basketball world's biggest stage. As it turned out, it seems like our brothers from the Mediterranean scouted us well, especially Jeff Chan, who they limited to just a single conversion from the three-point arc. They however still failed to dampen the never-say-die attitude of Gilas and fought them hard right up to the final buzzer. The Greek coach even at one point yelled at his players after calling a timeout for failing to put away the supposedly more inferior Gilas team early on. They also failed to contain Andray Blatche, who still got away with 21 points and 14 rebounds before being replaced towards the end of the game to prevent any possibility of aggravating his already hurting right knee. And the biggest revelation for Gilas in the tournament so far has been Fajardo, whose international game has improved by leaps and bounds since he started representing the country a year ago. He proved to be a huge thorn on the side of the Hellenics, whose lineup included three seven-footers, and even registered respectable numbers consisting of 10 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and no fouls, all in just an embarrassing 10 minutes of action (that's one point per minute!). How could you, Coach Chot? You should've given this kid at least 20 more minutes of action and could've succeeded in turning the tide in our favor!
Despite the loss, however, I am still very optimistic of our beloved national team's chances as I've learned a little later that Argentina just dropped an 85-90 decision against our first-game tormentors, Croatia. This only means that we have a very good chance of finally upsetting one of basketball's superpowers. That game will commence tonight at 11:30 p.m. Philippine time, so I'll definitely be there once again as it happens!
You may have lost to Greece, but the Filipino nation is still mighty proud of you, Gilas Pilipinas! Just keep on fighting, you're almost there! We are now starting to gain the respect of the world as we have shown that the diminutive Filipino basketball player is not to be underestimated. Patuloy lang ang laban, mga kababayan! Makakamtan rin natin ang minimithing tagumpay!
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