TOROMAN BELIEVES JAPAN GAME WON'T BE EASY
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 05 Aug 2013
Former Gilas Pilipinas national coach Rajko Toroman who led Iran to its first FIBA Asia Championships and the Philippines to a fourth place finish in Wuhan four years ago believes the second round game of Gilas Pilipinas against Japan which was scheduled to tip off at 8:30 tonight ?won?t be easy.?
Toroman said it depends on how the Philippine team recovers from its heartbreaking 83-79 loss to Chinese-Taipei last Saturday when a 13 point lead going into the fourth quarter was erased when coach Chot Reyes pulled out four of his top players on the court enabling Chinese-Taipei to come back for the win.
Reyes accepted the fact that he was to blame for the loss and expressed the hope that against Japan the Filipinos will not fall back in the opening ten minutes like they did in all three Group A games including a 19-30 deficit against Chinese-Taipei because it saps the players energy in the comeback.
Toroman told the Manila Standard that Japan ?has some good shooters just like Chinese-Taipei? but that the key to the Philippine games will be naturalized player Marcus Douthit.
He said ?Marcus needs more touches and must be used more and get more involved because he is very enthusiastic as can be seen by his diving on the floor? for loose balls and playing well.
Toroman believes that Japan?s big men are a little too slow and not as talented as Douthit who needs to anchor the Gilas Pilipinas bid to sweep its three games against Japan, Qatar and Hong Kong in the second round.
Qatar stunned Jordan in their opening game to post a 3-0 slate following a 75-61 win yesterday. The middle-east country broke out of a first quarter 23-23 deadlock to move ahead by 4 at the half, 42-38 before increasing the lead to 9 at the end of the third, 61-52 and coasted to a handy 75-61 win.
Gilas Pilipinas faces Qatar Tuesday and although the Qataris beat Jordan, Toroman thinks they ?can?t play that way two or three games in a row especially because they had a tough game in beating Jordan.?
The former national coach said ?the Philippines must use its quickness against Qatar to be able to win.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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