AS much as everyone wanted to see a huge margin of victory in Gilas Pilipinas' game against Myanmar on Saturday, coach Tim Cone reminded everyone that the essence of the 30th Southeast Asian Games isn't about winning alone.
"You know the SEA Games are all about competition and friendship. You compete through friendship and you try to gain friendships. You're not trying to create enemies in the SEA Games. That's why we all come together and that's something we want to try to represent tonight," he said after the Philippines' 136-67 victory over Myanmar.
Gilas had an average winning margin of 101 points against the Burmese in the two games they faced off since 2017.
And much of the same were expected in this night, with fans looking for a humungous blowout in favor of the hosts.
Cone, however, has emphasized on showcasing the best Philippine basketball has to offer on and off the court.
It was a quandary that he admittedly faced and Gilas struggled with.
"We were trying to find a balance between playing the game hard and respecting the game and yet not trying to run up the score. We didn't want to run up the score and embarrass anybody," the two-time Grand Slam-winning mentor said, acknowledging the huge talent gap between the national teams.
But that difficulty showed, with Myanmar keeping in step in the first quarter and had their best offensive quarter in the tourney.
"We were taking it too easy, and in that way, we're not respecting the game either when we take it too easy," said Cone.
Hot-shooting from Matthew Wright and Marcio Lassiter in the second frame did the trick for Gilas Pilipinas, jumping on a comfortable 41-point halftime lead, 77-36 and went on cruise control from that point on.
"We turned it on a little bit in that second quarter and we got going. Marcio and Matt got us going, hitting a number of threes and that kind of picked up our defensive intensity, and then we went from there," he said.
"I think in the beginning, they all had the impression they weren't supposed play so hard because they didn't want to run up the score. But that was kinda not what we were looking for. They found the balance later on."
Cone, though, said that there was still a push-and-pull from his side, wanting to make it a respectable winning margin for the Philippines but not to the extent of humiliating Myanmar.
"We tried to not fastbreak too much, tried to slow the game down. We wouldn't keep running up that score higher and higher and higher cause that wasn't our purpose. Our purpose was to go out, use this game to get ready for the next one, and show respect to our opponent," he said, hoping that the result struck a common ground in juggling those ideals.
"Obviously, there's a big gap in talent between the two teams. But we want Myanmar to keep coming back and keep wanting to play and keep wanting to improve their basketball program. We don't want to discourage them, and no one likes to be embarrassed. No one likes to be humiliated, so we just tried to be respectful and try to continue to play the game hard, create good habits going to the next game, and again, not try to run up the score."
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