Gilas Pilipinas lost to a position-less Italian squad

We can’t sugarcoat it. Gilas Pilipinas suffered a beating against the Italian men’s basketball team in their 2019 FIBA World Cup opener.

The Azzuri demonstrated its fluid offense by tallying 30 assists in a 40-minute game. No wonder they were able to breach the century mark in scoring and blasted their way off the gates by tallying 37 points in the opening quarter alone. Their intensity trickled onto their defense as well, limiting Team Pilipinas to just eight markers.

Don’t get me wrong. Gilas has prepared for this challenge. They have constantly trained once they had the entire team together. Coach Yeng Guiao and the Gilas coaching staff spent hours watching Italy’s game tape. The players and the mentors are aware that they must stop Marco Bellinelli, Luigi Datome, and Danilo Gallinari.

Unfortunately, they haven’t prepared against the fluidity of the Italian roster. It’s freaky that Coach Romeo Sacchetti’s men had the agility to contain Mark Barroca and the power to cancel Andray Blatche and June Mar Fajardo.

Italy’s dominance started from the get-go thanks largely to their opening rotation that can address multiple positions. Bellinelli and Michael Hackett are both listed as shooting guards, but they can take turns being the point guard. Datome is a 6’ 8” small forward that can also slot into the power forward and center positions.

Gallinari is a 6’ 10” stretch four that can deliver damage from the perimeter and the paint. Finally, center Paul Biligha has the skill to swap roles with the two other front court personnel. It is this flexibility that kept Gilas guessing and enabled the opponents to put on a clinic. In the end, Italy’s scoring was well distributed that the starters and the replacement scored 57 and 51 points, respectively. Amedeo Della Valle tallied 17 points in just 17 minutes of play off the bench.

Facing that position-less roster shackled Gilas. That element of surprise dished out by the Italians gave nightmares to our players. Looking on the bright side, at least Serbia has well defined roles for their starters. Our players will know exactly who to guard. But doing just that will depend on their competitive drive.

(Photo credit: FIBA)