Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Aug. 31, 2014 in thefilipinoconnection.net and has been reposted with permission from the author
MANILA, Philippines — Argentinean coach Julio Lamas called his national team’s escape act against Philippines at the 2014 Mundial de Basquet (FIBA World Cup) the most uncomfortable game he has ever coached.
His country’s sports journalists, in Spanish, used a different word: sufrimiento, or sufrió. In English, suffering.
Years of experience in world-level basketball have carried Argentina in the end game. To depict what Argentina had gone through, a story by reporter Hernan Sartori for Argentina’s largest newspaper Clarin carried the headline Argentina sufrió hasta el final para ganarle a Filipinas (Argentina suffered until the end to beat the Philippines).
Another Argentinean newspaper, Canchallena, saw columnist Juan Manuel Trenado write El pasaje para los octavos de final llego en un partido a puro sufrimiento (The passage to the knockout stages comes in a game of pure suffering). The piece reveals Argentina’s prospects of making it far into the competition in an effort to relive the glory days —especially the gold medal Argentina won in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
“Filipinas. Si, Filipinas. El sacrificio que hubo que hacer para ganarle a Filipinas (Philippines. Yes, the Philippines. The sacrifice [Argentina had to undergo] to beat the Philippines,” Trenado’s introductory sentences wrote.
The current Argentinean team to the World Cup is a weakened version of the “Golden Generation,” to include multiple-time NBA champion Emmanuel “Manu” Ginobili (who missed the Spain conclave, together with fellow NBA player Carlos Delfino, due to injuries). So Trenado is worried that Argentina may not reach the semifinals.
Group B play is an uphill battle for the world no. 3-ranked team. Like what the Philippines gave Argentina that September 1 evening, a match Argentina’s supposed to win mightily.
“Lo más negativo fue que no le pudimos dar el descanso que queríamos a Luis (Scola, 32 minutos), Pablo (Prigioni, 36) y Chapu (Nocioni, 34). El partido no nos los permitió,” Trenado wrote. In other words, with the game the Philippines had played, Argentina’s top three players had to log in extended minutes.
It’s a relief, says New York Knicks guard Pablo Prigioni, that Argentina had won — that their legs have endured running with these Filipino guys, on the third straight day of playing basketball in Sevilla.
But after the Philippines shocked world no. 16 Croatia last Aug. 30 with peskiness amid a 78-81 overtime loss, 43-year-old Argentinean radio commentator Diego Brunetti wasn’t surprised that the effort the Filipinos brought to the Croatians was carried over against the Argentineans.
Since Brunetti, who co-hosts the show Todo Red for one of the leading Argentinean radio stations, Radio La Red, saw the Philippines-Croatia game, “the Philippines can get Argentina in trouble.” As evidenced in the game, Brunetti echoed coach Lamas: “The (Filipinos’) style of play made Argentina play uncomfortably with them.”
“The fast pace of the game, and the Filipinos’ taking of quick shots never (allowed) Argentina to establish its half-court defense,” Brunetti told The Filipino Connection in an email. “The Philippines set the tempo of the game, and sometimes Argentina was caught in that tempo even if it was not convenient.”
The Philippines established three 10-point leads in the first half, only to be outdone in the dying minutes prior to intermission with a 15-2 Argentina run. In the third quarter, after a 51-all standoff, Luis Scola and company unleashed a 17-2 run for a 68-53 lead.
But triples from 5’6” Jimmy Alapag showed that the Philippines won’t quit, and the game even became 82-81 at crunch time.
Prior to the FIBA World Cup, the national team Argentina assembled “is completely” different from the 2004 Olympic champion squad. Argentina is trying to rebuild its national team with young players like guards Facundo Campazzo and Nicolas Laprovittola.
As for its prospects going into the knockout stages, Brunetti thinks that even if Argentina wants to be competitive, “everything will be very difficult”. “There are no easy games for Argentina in the first round,” Brunetti said some five days prior to the opening of the World Cup.
Argentina plays Group B surprise package Senegal and undefeated Greece next (FIBA-Africa bronze medalists Senegal shocked Croatia in a 77-75 win last Sept. 1. The day before, Argentina lost to Croatia, 85-90.)
Prior also to the World Cup, and at a time when veteran Carlos Arroyo was playing healthy, Puerto Rican writer Marcos Carlo Figueroa told The Filipino Connection his country has the tools to make it to the top 8. This is even as Arroyo and 38-year-old Daniel Santiago are playing in their last World Cup.
And in Figueroa’s August 27 email, he thinks Puerto Rico will manage the Philippines “easily”. His national team, though, has a bad habit of playing against underdogs.
Thus far, Arroyo and his team have yet to secure a win and Puerto Rico got upset by Senegal, 82-75, for the African country’s first FIBA World Cup win in 16 years. Puerto Rico squares off against winless groupmate the Philippines today (Sept. 3), hoping to get a win that keeps either team alive in the World Cup.
As for the Philippines, which will battle a streaking Senegal squad tomorrow (Sept. 4), Brunetti thinks the intensity and heart the players displayed against Argentina can always make the Philippines competitive.
The Philippines has good players, observes Brunetti who writes basketball for Uno contra Uno (a television show). Argentineans watching that Sept. 1 evening game “were really scared (until) the end.”
“The Filipinos are giving everybody in the tournament a headache.”