Gilas Pilipinas is finally complete.
Better late than never.
Gilas Pilipinas finally got Jordan Clarkson, Kai Sotto, and Scottie Thompson together after weeks of uncertainty. For now, the entire Gilas nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief after a good outing from the national team against Ivory Coast.
"This is not the [FIBA] World Cup [yet] but we take solace in the fact that at least we got one game under our belts that we got those three guys in," Chot Reyes said in an interview posted by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.
Clarkson played through the first half and half of the third before sitting out the rest of the game with 13 points and 6 rebounds under his name.
"Pinlano talaga namin 'yung kanyang playing time today to play the entire first half and we started him in the third quarter and then kung kailangan, ibabalik siya sa fourth, pero hindi na kailangan," Reyes explained.
"It was important for Jordan to play the whole first half to get his game wind slowly. He has a couple more games to get into game shape."
As for Thompson and Sotto, the two gave a reassuring performance with little to no signs of lingering issues from injuries.
"I like the way Scottie moved. You can see that Kai was a big factor, although he's still not a hundred percent from his back problems. But he gives us just that much-needed depth in the frontline."