Gilas Pilipinas is eliminated from the Asiad despite trouncing jerk Kazakhstan, 67-65, in Incheon South Korea Asian Games 2014. Mindless public clamor for Marcus “Big Daddy” Douthit to play major role for Philippine Basketball team backfired as the Filipinos looked tentative playing the dribble drive with the naturalized center. Douthit finished with big 18 points and 14 boards but fumbled and missed several shots in the final minutes. Jimmy “Mighty Mouse” Alapag made 2 of 4 treys and contributed 11 points for Gilas Pilipinas.

The Filipinos were dominant on both fronts of offense and defense, but the lowpost game of Douthit made the dribble drive tentative and predictable. RP Five wasn’t able to capitalize with the motion offense of the fluid dribble drive and relied heavily to paint mastery. Combined with paltry shooting and crucial turnovers in crunchtime, Gilas failed to mount a needed 11 point lead against the Kazakhs.

Pilipinas shot 6 of 26 from the arc and 26 of 68 clip from the field. Though an improvement in turnovers made, the 13 errors committed were mostly in the final minutes of the crucial ballgame, making it 8 in the second half. Injury to Paul Lee and Marc Pingris also played heavy toll to the ability of the Gilas quintet to mount a dominant uprising.

Douthit spearheaded the first half blast for the Filipinos with 8 points and 9 rebounds. Philippines dominated the boards at the half, 26 against 24. RP five made 13 of 35 fieldgoals and 3 of 12 three point shots at the same timeframe.

Pavel Ilin led Kazakhstan with 21 markers with 3 coming from the arc. Arguably, the Kazakhs were gifted technicalities by the refs not allowing the Pinoys to shoot in their goal to sue overtime, but letting the former Russian territory to intentionally miss their foul throws. The defeated Kazakhs, a perennial RP nemesis in the Asiad, intentionally missed their last shots to block Philippines entry to the Semis.