We’re number one.
Courtesy of this man.
We were down by as much as 14 I think, and was really aching on defense. USA couldn’t miss either from 3s or jumpers and even their smallest guy Justice was scoring big, once even via an impressive dunk twisting in the air from the weak side.
Tenorio and Douthit however turned on the high pick and roll and from then on it was our game throughout. With the US defense stretched our shooters were spaced evenly. Fonacier, Norwood and Chan were either open for jumpers or would drive for good attempts, sometimes open or with just one defender.
The results really were nothing short of magic. I can’t even remember one instance when Tenorio would actually pass directly to a driving Douthit. Rather, Tenorio would pass to another guard who then finds the angle to Douthit, who by then is in such great position he’s often just a step away from a layup.
Our weaknesses seem to continue to be our freethrows, but our offense was just so good it seemed to make up for that and even energized our defense. The definitive description of energized however was absolutely LA Tenorio, who just got hot and kept hot throughout the fourth.
I’m not sure how much points he made, but he was swishing them hard and often. At this point I would’ve thought the US would adjust by sticking a better defender against him, but he was just hot hot hot and unstoppable at that point.
So a couple of points.
– That US team is really bad. They didn’t improve D on Tenorio, the hottest guy on the court, and they couldn’t defend the pick and roll even if it was obvious we were going with that all the time. Additionally on the last possession, they took a horrible running layup that was well defended by Douthit, then didn’t get the rebound when missed. Who got it? Why Tenorio of course, possibly the smallest guy on the court. They looked tentative and without a plan, and for that I’m thinking they’re either really young or unprepared, or both.
– What does this mean for former Gilas Coach Toroman? Coach Reyes has proven he can come up with a Champion team, even if it is ‘only’ the Jones Cup, pulling out the excellent pick and roll at the appropriate time and coming up big in the strategy department.
The future looks bright for the team at this time. They can ask more sponsors, or at least more money from their current ones, and be assured of more benefits because of. Whatever it is they get they deserve. They are Champions goddamit, and winners get, and deserve, the spoils.