Inamin ni Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone na kailangan pa nilang hasain nang husto ang kanilang depensa ilang linggo bago ang pagbubukas ng 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Reaksyon ito ni Cone matapos mabigo ang Gilas sa Alab Pilipinas sa isang tune-up game kagabi, 89-93, sa Meralco Gym sa lungsod ng Pasig.
Partikular na tinukoy ng Gilas mentor ang kanilang transition dahil sinamantala ng Alab ang nagawa nilang mga turnovers upang mapanatili ang abanse sa laban.
Ayon kay Cone, ito raw ang pinakamalaki nilang kahinaan ngayon na dapat nang ayusin bago ang pagsabak nila sa event nila sa SEA Games sa Disyembre.
“We’re not getting back well on transition. That’s really an effort area of the game and also a technique area of the game,” wika ni Cone. “It’s really hard to work on transition defense when you have a tired team ’cause it takes a lot of sprinting back and takes a lot of effort. I think that’s our biggest weakness right now, it’s our ability to get back and locate guys.”
Sa kabila nito, kumpiyansa si Cone na mahahanapan nila ng solusyon ang kanilang mga problema, lalo pa’t pinuri nito ang ipinamalas na effort ng Gilas.
“But the good news is we battled. Guys were pulling for each other all the time. We were unselfish. We tried hard on defense, although we were disorganized. Those were all the positives that we wanna move forward on,” ani Cone.
“It’s a step back, but I think it’s a good step back that we have. We understand how hard this is gonna be. This is not gonna be easy. It’s a good message for everybody. Hopefully this is one step back, two steps forward.”
Sa laro kagabi, nagsanib-puwersa ang mga imports ng Alab na sina Nick King, Adrian Forbes, at Khaliff Wyatt upang tumipon ng kombinasyon na 46 points.
Sumandal naman ang Gilas kina Roger Pogoy na pumoste ng 14 points, maging kina June Mar Fajardo at Japeth Aguilar na kapwa bumuslo ng 12 points.
