FIBA Asia- Korea vs Gilas Pilipinas : History's Door Ajar For the Philippines

Tonight- a chance at history for the Philippines as it embarks on its quest for its first Olympic berth in over 30 plus years.

Keys to the Game:

1) Quick Perimeter D: This is where Japeth Aguilar and Gabe Norwood can and will likely shine. Aguilar's length should bother any Korean excursions to the hoop, and ocassionally, should be able to negate open looks from 15-20 feet. Norwood's ability to play a Shawn Marion-esque role by locking down the opposing squad's top scorer, has been invaluable in the 27th Fiba Asia Tournament. Tonight, he should reprise his role as Gilas' top perimeter defensive ace amidst Korea's drive and kick motion offense. 

2) Long Toms: Larry Fonacier and Jeff Chan are Gilas' top gunners from 3 point land, and for us to beat Korea, we need stellar shooting games from them. Our offense is predicated on a bevy of picks and kick outs from traps on our bigs so, to put it simply - no trey, no way. 

3) Maintain a Slow Pace to the Game: This should help establish Marcus Douthit down low. Douthit may be nursing a minor knee ailment, but the former Lakers draft choice still has the ability to create in the low post. In case Gilas' perimeter shooting goes off kilter, then we dump the ball to the big man inside and hope for chip shots and points from the line. 

4) Man to Man D: We went Zone with Chinese Taipei, which allowed their quicker, sharper, perimeter guns to go semi-automatic on us. Korea plays a similar style, and so, the only way to prevent wide open treys would be to play honest man-to-man D, which I believe we can do quite ably. What we lack in speed, we can make up for with decent box outs and discpline on footwork on rotations. 

5) El Grande, Mucho Gusto: Gary David's 22 points against Kazakhstan should not be an aberration. His ability to create off the dribble and on shots going to the rim and off of screens is crucial in ensuring that Gilas does not go through offense droughts like they've had the tendency to have especially towards the ends of halves and the ends of first quarters.

History COULD be made tonight. 

This is going to be a slugfest. 

Korea and The Philippines up in a bit. 

#LabanPilipinas

MC