Reunion in Tokyo
Julio Lamas will never forget Chot Reyes. At the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain, Lamas was Argentina’s head coach while Reyes called the shots for Gilas. They matched wits when heavily-favored Argentina battled the Philippines. Lamas piloted Argentina to fourth place at the 2012 London Olympics so he was expected to dominate the coaching matchup.
To his surprise, Lamas was pushed to the limit. Gilas surged to a 12-2 start and led, 25-22, at the end of the first period. With over two minutes left, Gilas was down only by a point, 82-81. Argentina was on top, 83-81, when Jayson Castro flubbed a triple that could’ve shifted the lead to Gilas with less than 10 seconds left. Castro went up to take a shot but hesitated in mid-air with 6-7 Marcos Mata defending in front of him. He dropped the ball then picked it up with the referee quick to call the traveling violation. Gilas gave up a foul and Andres Nocioni hit two free throws for the final count, 85-81.
Lamas said it was the “most uncomfortable” game he’d ever experienced. Pablo Prigioni, an NBA veteran on the Argentine squad, lauded Reyes for his unconventional style. The Argentina media said Lamas “suffered” before pulling off the win. Gilas enjoyed three 10-point leads in the first half and the count was tied, 51-all, before Argentina ignited a 17-2 run. But Gilas refused to quit and would’ve won if only Castro knocked down that triple. It was the same game where Gabe Norwood posterized NBA veteran Luis Scola with a vicious dunk.
Tonight, Lamas and Reyes will face each other again. This time, Lamas will coach Japan as the Akatsuki Five hosts Gilas at the Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground Gymnasium in Tokyo. Akatsuki means “dawn” and the nickname reflects the team’s identity with the “Land of the Rising Sun.” The venue isn’t big with a capacity of 3,474 and an additional 1,120 seats as a contingency. Tickets were sold out weeks back.
Lamas, 53, was brought in by Japan to upgrade the Akatsuki in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where the host country has an automatic slot in the 12-team basketball competition. At presstime, the final 12-man lineups of both teams were still not available. Expected to lead the charge for Japan are 6-3 Makoto Hiejima, 6-3 Daiki Tanaka, 6-9 twins Kosuke and Joji Takeuchi and 6-4 naturalized import Ira Brown. Only five players in the pool were on the Japanese squad that took fourth place at the FIBA Asia Championships in Changsha two years ago. They were Hiejima, Atsuya Ota, Joji Takeuchi, Tanaka and Ryumo Ono. In Changsha, the Philippines downed Japan, 81-70 even as Hiejima erupted for 28 points and Takeuchi 18. Kenji Hasegawa was then Japan’s coach. Back from the 2015 Gilas cast for the Tokyo game are Andray Blatche, Norwood, Castro and Calvin Abueva.
In the last meeting between the Philippines and Japan, Gilas won, 100-85, at the Jones Cup in Taipei this year. But only two Japanese players, Kengo Nomoto and Gen Hiraiwa, were named to the 24-man pool for the FIBA Asia/Pacific qualifiers.
After Gilas plays Japan, the team returns home to battle Chinese-Taipei at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Monday. The two games will complete Gilas’ Group B schedule in the first qualifying window. Gilas will play in Australia on Feb. 22 and host Japan on Feb. 25 in the second window. The third window will pit the Philippines against Chinese-Taipei on the road on June 29 and Australia at home on July 2. If the Philippines finishes in the top three of Group B, Gilas will advance to the second round of three more qualifying windows and battle the top three placers of Group D, likely to be Iran, Kazakhstan and Iraq. The top three teams in the two brackets of the second round will qualify for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. The fourth place team in either bracket with the better record will also advance. Since China has an outright slot in the World Cup as host, there will be eight teams from Asia/Pacific in the 32-nation event.
Postscript. Here’s the final part of yesterday’s column. “With Adamson showing signs of exhaustion, La Salle coach Aldin Ayo ordered a lockdown in the fourth period. Abu Tratter was deployed to double the ballhandler, disrupting the flow of the Falcons’ offense and funnelling the ball to the interior where Ben Mbala lay in waiting. La Salle was fresher and played more efficiently down the stretch as the Archers had more rebounds, 20-7, second chance points, 8-2 and assists, 6-2, in the fourth. Aljun Melecio, the smallest man on the floor, picked up two offensive rebounds from missed free throws and scored twice as Adamson’s bigs appeared too tired to box out. Adamson scored 30 points from the bench in the first three quarters and zero in the fourth.
“It’s easy to point to the free throw disparity and claim the calls were one-sided. But the cold reality is the game was decided in the fourth period when the Falcons crumbled and the Archers surged. Defense, coaching and execution settled the outcome, nothing else. The danger of fanning the fire of rants is it may influence the referees’ calls in the Finals which start tomorrow and that would be detrimental to the league, teams, players and fans.”