Scottie Thompson looks like he’s getting his groove back, though.
Gilas Pilipinas stayed in the hunt for the most part before Mexico ran away with the 84-77 win in a closed-door tune-up game on Monday.
Here’s what transpired in what was said to be the country's modern-day heroes' closed-door match at the PhilSports Arena, by the numbers.
14
Only Scottie Thompson finished in double figures for Gilas with 14 points. He also had 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
Those are healthy Scottie numbers. Perhaps the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel star has fully recovered from the metacarpal injury?
Either way, this is a great sign for Gilas.
34-16
Gilas won in bench points, with Jamie Malonzo, Kiefer Ravena, Chris Newsome, and June Mar Fajardo combining for 27 points off the bench.
Mexico’s starting quintet of Pako Cruz, Paul Stoll, Fabian Jaimes, Gabriel Giron, and Josh Ibarra scored 68 of the team’s total output of 84.
6-6
Not sure if he had limited touches or just struggled, but Fajardo wound up with 6 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and the same number of boards in almost 23 minutes of play.
It pales compared to his previous game against Nikola Vucevic and Montenegro where he finished with 19 big points, including 11 in the fourth period.
0
The number of minutes Jordan Clarkson played. It’s interesting to see the Utah Jazz scorer sit out the last of a series of tune-up matches meant to get him up to speed as far as the system is concerned.
But Clarkson is an NBA player with very high basketball IQ, so he should be fine.
(GM)