 |
| The Tall Blacks' defense succeeded in stifling Justin Brownlee. Richard Esguerra |
PASAY--Filipino basketball fans just saw the worst performance of Justin Brownlee in a game in the Philippines on Thursday night when Gilas Pilipinas succumbed to New Zealand in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.
In front of a sold-out crowd at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, Brownlee was nearly neutralized, only scoring four points on 2-of-10 shooting and two assists against four turnovers in almost 34 minutes of action, something everyone was not used to seeing even in the PBA.
Known for taking over in the clutch, Brownlee was sent back in the last 2:02 of the game in hopes of sparking a comeback for Gilas, but he was held scoreless as Dwight Ramos took the fight to himself down the stretch.
Needless to say, New Zealand was right in focusing much of its defensive gameplan on the Ginebra resident import.
"He's about 80 percent of our game plan," coach Judd Flavell said after the Tall Blacks' win.
Flavell is also aware that coach Tim Cone's current triangle offense system is centered around Brownlee, whether with the Gin Kings or with Gilas.
"We know that traditionally, the Philippines has run a lot of triangle. It's what he is very familiar with," Flavell continued.
"Whenever he is on the floor, we know that the ball is coming back to Brownlee."
With the new FIBA continental alignment merging Asia and Oceania to form the FIBA Asia-Pacific region, Gilas and New Zealand can now play more often than before, and for Flavell, it makes it easier to understand Brownlee's tendencies.
"It helps that we've played each other a lot," Flavell further said, although he too said that it also became beneficial on the Gilas side, as evidenced by how they at least kept the game close in the end despite Brownlee's struggles.
In the end, though, the Tall Blacks' game plan worked.
"We know he takes a lot of attention. He can score the basketball. He's a true international scorer, so the attention was that we just got to be within touch distance with him all the time. He's involved with actions. We want to make sure that there's two guys on him," Flavell said.
The Tall Blacks won for the third straight time against Gilas, and this time, they also gave Brownlee a bad beat that even other FIBA and PBA teams struggled to do.
