New Zealand focused on Brownlee; Cone says Tall Blacks defended well

After averaging 21 points in the first window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Justin Brownlee was held to just four points in Gilas Pilipinas’ 69-66 loss to New Zealand Tall Blacks on Thursday.

New Zealand head coach Judd Flavell admitted that much of their game plan centered on stopping Brownlee.

“Justin Brownlee, we kept him quiet, I think he had four points, we know the damage that he can do. He's given us the business before in recent games, and so he was a large focus, focal point for us, and I thought that went a long way for us defensively tonight,” Flavell said, adding that defending Dwight Ramos was also part of their plan.

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Familiarity, Flavell said, also played a role in the win.

“He's (Brownlee) about 80% of our game plan. We know that traditionally, the Philippines had ran a lot of triangle,” he said.

“You know, as a coach, he's very familiar. In the last three games we've played against the Philippines, and whenever he is on the floor, we know that the ball is coming back to Brownlee. It helps that we've played each other a lot,” Flavell said, adding that Reuben Te Rangi, Jordan Ngatai, Max Darling, and Carlin Davison were tasked to defend Brownlee.

“He can score the basketball, he's a true international scorer, and so the intention was that we've just got to be within touch distance with him all the time.”

Gilas head coach Tim Cone, meanwhile, acknowledged that the Tall Blacks did a solid job defending Brownlee and the rest of the team.

“We didn't run as much triangle over there, we probably should have ran more, but they did a good job of disrupting us,” Cone said.

“I think that's the next step for us, being able to get more execution, we didn't execute as much as we wanted to, and that's why we didn't get much of a flow.”

Physicality also factored into New Zealand’s defensive effort, according to Cone.

“New Zealand played great defense tonight, they have great size, and as you can see it, they're super physical out there on the floor, I mean they bust through screens, they grab and hold, you know, they take it to the edge, which is what you really should do, and they know that,” he said.

“I hate to say it, but we're going to continue to learn as we go forward, but again, I just don't want to get into this, ‘We almost won, we almost did that,' we don't want to play that game with ourselves. We want to win games."

Gilas will face Australia men's national basketball team on Sunday.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News