Lesson learned

FOSHAN, China — Gilas Pilipinas tries to slay the ghost of its nightmarish debut when it clashes with the world’s second-best team in Serbia in the FIBA Basketball World Cup today at the GBA International Sports and Cultural Center in this beautiful city at the heart of southern China.

Action kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with the Nationals again aiming to pull off a major shocker not only to remain in contention, but also to bury the sorry — and very embarrassing — memories brought by their 46-point loss to Italy in the opening salvo of this prestigious 32-nation tournament last Saturday.

Gilas head coach Yeng Guiao admitted that the Italians gave them a neat lesson in international basketball.

With NBA stars Danilo Gallinari of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs at the attack zone, Azzurri, or the Italian basketball squad, shattered Gilas to pieces, erecting a massive 18-point lead in the first seven minutes of action, 22-4, to dictate the tempo en route to a 108-62 win.

A total of 12 Italians barged into the scoresheet with Euroleague campaigners Luigi Datome and Amedeo Della Valle scoring 17 points each, while Gallinari contributed 16 markers in an all-around display of basketball prowess.

Guiao, who is regarded as the best in the business in bouncing back after a humiliating loss, opted to cancel their midday training to give his wards more time to ponder on what went wrong, or on how they were clobbered by the taller, faster Italians in a game with no less than President Rodrigo Duterte and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas chairman emeritus Manny Pangilinan in attendance.

“We were shell-shocked in our first game. The level of game was definitely high and if you will fail to keep up, you’re going to lag behind,” said Guiao a day after absorbing one of the worse losses in Philippine basketball.

“When you play in a tournament of world level, you must expect the highest level of competition.”

But bouncing back in the most competitive basketball tournament in the world is easier said than done.

The Serbians may just be the second-best team in the latest FIBA ranking, but international basketball observers picked them as the top team in this tourney following the withdrawal of prolific American cagers like LeBron James, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Eric Gordon and CJ McCollum.

In their first game against Angola, the giants from Eastern Europe flexed their muscles.

Gunner Bogdan Bogdanovic, a sophomore for the Sacramento Kings, was at his best, firing 24 points, while Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, who was often mentioned in the conversations for Most Valuable Player award in the NBA last season, chipped in 14 markers in their 105-59 conquest of Angola.

Another NBA cager in Boban Marjanovic of the Dallas Mavericks started the game over Jokic but had to sit out after eight minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.

He reappeared when the game was already decided in the fourth quarter to finish with 12 points, 10 rebounds and one block in 17 minutes of action.

Serbia, which played without sweet-shooting forward Nemanja Bjelica, was on fire from start to finish as it converted 13 of its 20 attempts for a scorching 69 percent from the three-point territory.

“We made a flying start and controlled every aspects of the game from start to finish,” said Serbian coach Aleksandar Djordjevic, who won three European crowns and the world title in 1998 for Yugoslavia.

“This performance will definitely boost our confidence in our upcoming game against the Philippines. It’s still a long road and we have to stay humble, although we want to win convincingly to achieve our goal.”

At this point, Gilas Pilipinas’ goal of making a historic run past the first round is getting nil.

In fact, before they could make it to the Final 16, the Nationals have to come up with a “very favorable” result against the Serbians and clobber the Angolans on Wednesday by a massive margin. They also have to pray for Italy to conk out against Serbia and Angola for them to nab the second spot in their group.

He said admitted that it would never be easy.

“We look forward to playing Serbia after making the corrections from the last game,” Guiao said, who is hoping for a payback performance from his top guns like Andray Blatche, Gabe Norwood and June Mar Fajardo, as well as the youthful troika of Kiefer Ravena, Robert Bolick and CJ Perez.

“We try to be positive and be of encouragement to each other. We cannot allow ourselves to be defined by one bad game. There are still two games left. We need to pick up the pieces and put everything together to play a better game against Serbia.

Guiao didn’t make any promises, but stressed that they will do their best to, at least, be at par with the powerful Serbians, similar to their performance in the previous World Cup in Spain where they gave their tormentors like Croatia, Greece and Puerto Rico a very good fight.

“The consolation for us, Filipino basketball fans, is to see our team fight and compete — and that’s what we’ll try to do against Serbia.”