Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes couldn’t be more pleased to see Scottie Thompson and CJ Perez deliver in the national team’s 74-66 win over Jordan on Friday, Nov. 11, despite not playing in their natural positions.
Without a natural point guard in the roster, the two, who usually play at the shooting guard and small forward positions in the PBA, made a good account of themselves for orchestrating the offense.
Thompson, for one, looked completely comfortable at the point guard spot as he displayed his MVP numbers of eight points, 13 rebounds and eight assists.
“I thought with Scottie we had a point guard who has the size he's not going to be overpowered by these 6 '4", 6' 5” guards like Freddie Ibrahim today and he delivered,” said Reyes after the game.
Reyes was actually the least surprised with Thompson’s performance who can finally translate his numbers in the PBA to the international competition
“I thought the first time against Lebanon and Saudi, Scottie was feeling his way around the things that we do but slowly, Scottie we're seeing what he really can do from that position. We've got a lot of guys at the two and three spots so we really need Scottie at the point,” explained the veteran coach.
Like Thompson, Perez also did his fair share in running the plays for the Filipinos especially in the second half when Gilas created the much-needed separation to shake off the hard-fighting Jordanian side.
“We know for CJ to get out and score, we gotta get him on the two spot where he is not initiating the offense but really being the scorer, but without Kiefer we really needed him to play point,” said Reyes.
Perez though had to shake off some rust in the first half when he picked up early fouls. When he finally settled down in the second half, he just stepped his foot on the gas pedal and joined Thompson in dissecting the Jordan defense to create shots for themselves and their teammates.
“We thought he played admirably as well and I thought on the part where we were able to play both of them together I thought we had a particular spurt there and again that just shows the versatility of this team,” commented Reyes.