Hong Kong ace lauds Gilas deep bench, balance

CHANGSHA – Hong Kong main man Duncan Reid yesterday said he was impressed with the depth and balance of the Gilas Pilipinas roster, adding the Filipinos have a deeper bench than the Chinese and the Koreans.

Asked what he was impressed the most with Gilas, Reid said: “Their continuity, to tell you the truth.”

“Often with the other teams we played, we played Korea and China, you’ll find that there’s a big drop off between the starters and bench,” he pointed out.

“But I found what coach Baldwin was able to do. He brings in substitutes, but there’s no really big drop off. That continuity was very good,” he added.

He said they played an entirely different Gilas team than the one they scouted in a game against Palestine Wednesday.

“You can see that they struggled against the zone a little bit (Wednesday), and that’s what we tried to do very early on. But they hit shots, hit a lot of shots,” he said.

“A lot of guys, who were a little hesitant (Wednesday), hit a lot of threes against us,” he added

He insisted they saw a different Gilas team against Palestine.

“I felt that after watching them, they moved the ball better and they were a lot more aggressive attacking our zone. They really made us pay hitting a lot of tough shots,” Reid said.

Reid and his teammates just couldn’t get into the fight with all the punishments dealt them by the Filipinos.

“We struggled bringing the ball up against pressure, they were very aggressive early,” Reid said.