What have we learned from the Tall Blacks vs China & Gilas vs Kazaks games?

On the last preview/tune-up games prior to FIBA Asia ,three FIBA Asia contending teams played almost simultaneously  at 7pm 26,th July, Manila time.  The 4^th team involved the Tall Blacks while not part of FIBA Asia was a good yard stick to judge these teams as the same team played Gilas just a week ago.

In that Gilas vs Tall Blacks game , Gilas played the Tall Blacks to a practical draw (loss by 1 with a controversial call with 2 seconds to go),  the Tall Blacks on the other hand loss to China by 1 on a last second shot by Wang Zhizhi , last night.  The Tall Blacks were leading all the way , until the referees basically decided the game , giving the Chinese a 25-8 edge in free throw attempts.

As assistant coach Paul Henare said :

 “You never want to harp on about it, but when you come to play China in China, you have to expect some flak from the refs,” said Henare. “It’s hard to explain to people back home without it seeming like sour grapes.

“You expect it, you just have to be that much better and for most of these two games, I thought we were.”

This might sound ironic but watching both game live  (the Tall Blacks vs the Chinese and vs Gilas), I came away thinking Gilas actually was more competitive than the Chinese despite the end game results.  “Context of where the games were played and how the referees actually called the game had a lot to do with it”

Here are a few takes from the Tall Blacks , Chinese games worth mentioning :

·         Despite the Tall Blacks being undersize by close to 3 inches in every position, the Tall Blacks out-rebounded their rivals 25-15, restricting them to just one offensive rebound.   Two of our main bigs Franks and Anthony fouled out , leaving 6’7 Vukona to play center ,  It is interesting to note that while Gilas was not as tall as the Chinese,  Marcus and Pingris held their own against the Tall Black front line .

·         6’1” guard Corey Webster who top scored for the Tall Blacks (19 pts) and had 3, three pointers was basically unstoppable of the dribble and moving without the ball (kick outs and handoffs) vs China.  Those characteristics are very similar to the strengths of Gilas brings to the table .  

While I won’t go as far as saying that Gilas is better side than China, I will say that the Chinese can be beaten by Gilas in Manila.