There’s good, and then there’s the bad. But there's progress, nonetheless.
There’s no runaway win this time for Gilas Pilipinas as Montenegro gave the Philippine team a 102-87 beating in the closed-door tune-up game on Sunday.
Here’s what happened, by the numbers.
8
As expected, Utah Jazz star Jordan Clarkson lit it up, dropping 27 points on 2-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc to go with 2 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal.
As explosive as he was, though, he made up almost half of the team’s 19 turnovers with 8 of his own.
19 and 13
Behind Clarkson, two more Gilas cagers scored in double figures. Six-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo scored 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting and in just over 16 minutes of play. Dwight Ramos notched 13.
18-9
Another NBA player delivered, this time for Montenegro, as Nikola Vucevic was a rebound shy of a double-double outing with team-high 18 points. The game was meant to prime Gilas up for Karl-Anthony Towns of Dominican Republic in the opener. Safe to say, Towns would still get his numbers so the Philippines may have to devise a few game plan to shut down the rest of the Dominicans.
26
That’s the number of assists Gilas logged in Sunday’s game, 7 better than their output in that department against Ivory Coast. While Gilas lost, one can say that chemistry is improving by the day, right?
0
Kai Sotto, Kiefer Ravena, Cjay Perez, RR Pogoy, and Calvin Oftana wound up scoreless.
To be fair, they had limited minutes, with Oftana logging in 4:36 (0-of-0 from the field), Ravena with 8:32 (0-of-3 shooting), and Perez with 8:27 (0-of-1 field goals).
(GM)