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DOHA (Qatar) & MANAMA (Bahrain) – The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers bubbles have come to an end, leaving us with some fun basketball memories to close out the 2020 calendar year. A lot has happened in both bubbles And here are five key takeaways from both places in Bahrain and Qatar.
Fresh looks
Having long-term familiarity and chemistry within a team is always good, but sometimes you need to make adjustments, adjustments, and changes to improve. This was the case in Indonesia and Syria and the results were significantly encouraging.
Both teams introduced new key pieces to their game plans and were able to score important victories thanks to these new sources of contribution.
Indonesia featured Bradon Jawato and Lester Prosper for the first time and both got to work on their debuts. Jawato nearly had a triple-double with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, while Prosper hit everyone in the paint for 19 points and 13 rebounds. More importantly, Indonesia achieved an important victory over Thailand in Group A.
In Group D, Syria was the team showing their new look. In addition to adding potential new superstar Trey Kell to the lineup, they were also led by new head coach Joe Salerno. The inspired coach promised fans an entertaining new look for Syria heading into his first two official games as head coach of the national team.
Despite stumbling through a tough loss to Qatar, Syria rallied for what could end up as their biggest victory in Asian Cup competition by beating Iran, 77-70. They managed to pull off the big surprise by riding the wave of Kell’s second game in a row with 30 or more points, as well as Solerno’s tactical adjustments.
Change can be good. Hug him.
No lead is safe
Michael Rostampour said it best in the post-match Iran-Syria press conference.
“These are the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers,” he said. “The intensity level is at an all-time high.”
“… This is not a club competition. This is the FIBA Asia Cup. This is championship basketball. Any team can beat any team and we saw it… “
Iran had led in that game by as much as 10 points before falling prey to surprise.
A day before that, India lost by 18 points to Bahrain after leading by up to 18 points.
That same day, Iraq had worked its way to a 10-point lead against Lebanon that they were unable to maintain.
Syria itself had led by 10 points against Qatar in their first bubble game and went on to lose by 7 points. Bahrain had a 16-point lead over Iraq, but had to end the game in overtime after seeing that cushion disappear.
The lesson for all teams in the Asian Cup Qualifiers is simple: there is no advantage in the safe.
Something to try
We introduced some young players to watch in Window 1 of the Qualifiers and marveled at how promising their future looked. For Muzamil Hamoda, Juan Gomez De Liaño, Dwight Ramos, Chanatip Jakrawan and Mohammed Alsuwailem (among other young people), the future looked bright.
What was not expected was how quickly that would improve to become consistent contributors to their respective teams.
Hamoda has easily become one of Bahrain’s biggest players and will continue to take on that role (if not an even bigger role) at the 2021 Asian Cup in which Bahrain has already qualified to play.
The same can be said for the Philippines backcourt duo of Ramos and Gómez De Liaño, who had an impressive two-game streak in the Bahrain bubble.
Thailand failed to get a three-shot win, but they should be quite pleased with the development of Chanatip Jakrawan, who exploded for 34 points and 12 rebounds against the Philippines in his most recent game.
In a team like Saudi Arabia that is full of veterans, Alsuwailem has marked his presence on his long-term big man.
Asian Cup fans were certainly excited by the promise these youngsters showed in February. They should be even more euphoric now to see how much these bright young prospects have improved since then.
Fascinating rivalries
An important part of entertaining basketball will always be the story between the two competing teams. There was a lot of that feeling in the air in both bubbles.
Despite being promising basketball nations, Indonesia and Thailand have a fierce rivalry that they were able to revisit in the window. The loyal fans could see it in the eyes of their players and no one backed off until the last seconds.
Also a couple that have a rich history with each other was Iran and Saudi Arabia. The two teams have met several times on the most important stage of the Asian Cup. Their clash in the Qualifiers was another classic installment, as Saudi Arabia was able to fight hand-to-hand with Iran until the final minutes. The match was decided by decisive shots from Iranians Behnam Yakhchali and Mohammad Jamshidi, leaving fans wanting more.
Aside from the established rivalries, there are those that are flourishing and waiting their turn to flourish.
One match to watch out for in the future is that between India and Bahrain. Their first window clash was decided by a game winner with just 5 seconds to go. The second time they met here it ended up being a 36-point turnaround from Bahrain, trailing behind for the win. Bahrain currently has the right to brag, but we can imagine sparks will fly the next time two teams meet.
It’s always fun when teams get a little more emotionally involved in beating a specific opponent in front of them (even slightly), so we expect more and more rivalries to flourish in the future of Asian Cup basketball.
It’s good to be back
All parties involved went to great lengths to organize the bubbles in both locations. In exceptional circumstances, Asian basketball fans were able to enjoy having basketball back in their lives.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as Qualifiers kicked off right after Thanksgiving … and surely everyone was grateful to see their favorite teams and players in action. That will be put on hiatus a little before the third and final window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
For now, it was good to see Asian Cup basketball once again.
FIBA
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