Blatche ready to ball?
Gilas naturalized import Andray Blatche was a ghost of his old self as he clearly gassed out after a strong first quarter in finishing with eight points on 3-of-11 field goals and 1-of4 free throws in the Philippines’ 84-68 loss to Australia in the second window of the Asia/Pacific qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup at the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne last Thursday.
Blatche, 31, hadn’t played a competitive game since collecting four points and four rebounds for Xinjiang in the Flying Tigers’ 105-98 win over Beijing in the Chinese league last Dec. 17. His spot as an import with Xinjiang has been taken over by Brazil’s 6-10 Augusto Lima after he averaged 12.8 points and 6.4 rebounds in only five games this season.
For whatever Blatche is being paid to play for Gilas and it’s not peanuts, he’s not earning his keep. In the first window of the Asia/Pacific qualifiers, he averaged 9.5 points and 13 rebounds. Blatche even apologized to his Gilas teammates for his lackluster showing in the Philippines’ come-from-behind 90-85 win over Chinese Taipei at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Nov. 27. Against Australia, Blatche didn’t bother to apologize but should’ve had. He scored only one point in the entire second half, huffing and puffing in looking like a tired, shop-worn horse.
But Blatche has vowed to give it his all against Japan at the MOA Arena tonight. He said the travel time from Melbourne to Manila wasn’t a problem. Gilas took the 8 1/2 hour flight last Friday and will be back on the court after only a day’s rest. “I’ll be ready to ball against Japan,” said Blatche. “I’m used to flying five hours or more going from city to city playing in China. Australia was my first game to play injury-free this year. I wasn’t surprised that Filipinos came out to support us in Melbourne. Filipinos are the best fans in the world. When we play Australia at home in July, they’ll be 10 times louder than in Melbourne.”
At the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, Blatche topped the efficiency standings where Pau Gasol was No. 2. He was No. 2 in scoring with a 21.2 clip, No. 1 in rebounding with a 13.8 average and No. 1 in minutes played with a 33.8 norm. Now, four years older and a lot heavier, Blatche is struggling to regain his old form.
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said he was disappointed with the loss to Australia but happy the team learned in staying competitive against the Boomers’ relentless 40-minute pressure and physicality. He said he had no illusions facing the world’s No. 10 team and all he wanted was to compete hard. “I managed minutes because we’ll need fresh legs for Japan,” he said. “I can’t complain about our effort. We’re still a work in progress. We’ll continue getting used to the FIBA game. We play PBA rules 11 months of the year and it’s difficult to make new habits. We left for Melbourne last Monday and the night before, some of our guys were still playing in the PBA. I didn’t want to overextend our guys. We played Dray 25 minutes, that was our goal. It was hard to play without Jayson (Castro) but Kiefer (Ravena) and Kevin (Alas) took care of business. Australia prepared for us by bringing in high-quality guards like Kevin Lisch to back up Jason Cadee. It was a great learning experience for us.”
Australian coach Andrej Lemanis said the Boomers’ depth and chemistry were key factors. He said the Boomers’ attitude and discipline were evident when they didn’t panic after Gilas sprinted to a 30-25 lead with 5:03 left in the first half. Australia countered with a 12-2 blast to end the second period then delivered a crippling 26-1 blow bridging the third and fourth quarters to ice the contest. Four Boomers scored in double figures while only JuneMar Fajardo was in twin digits for Gilas to underscore Australia’s depth. What added to Gilas’ woes was its poor free throw shooting, 7-of-19 compared to Australia’s 25-of-32.
Reyes chose the 12 to play against Japan from the 20-man pool he submitted to FIBA before the start of the second window. The lineup was formalized at the team managers meeting yesterday afternoon. The 20-man pool consists of Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, Raymond Almazan, Mac Belo, RR Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Castro, Matthew Wright, Gabe Norwood, Fajardo, Ravena, Alas, Terrence Romeo, Blatche, CJ Perez, Robert Bolick,
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