Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes defined the teaching workers’s determination to sit down Kai Sotto out for almost all of their 87-81 loss to the Dominican Republic, saying the opposite large males have been simply enjoying nice video games.
Sotto got here off the bench and checked into the sport with 4:04 left within the opening interval. But the 7-foot-3 heart picked up two fast fouls and needed to sub out after only one minute and 13 seconds of play.
But with Sotto out, Gilas’ different bigs stepped up large time as younger gun AJ Edu and veteran June Mar Fajardo held their very own in opposition to Dominican Republic’s NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns.
“He (Sotto) picked up two quick fouls so we had to get him out right away and then we couldn’t get him back in because this guy to my left (Edu) was playing a great game,” Reyes shared within the press convention.
“I think that’s the reason why he’s here. He was playing really, really well.”
Fajardo and Edu introduced out their A-games in opposition to the guests with the previous accumulating 16 markers and 7 boards whereas the latter churned out seven factors and 5 rebounds within the dropping effort.
With how each have been enjoying, and given what was at stake within the recreation, there simply wasn’t a possibility to convey Sotto again into the sport.
“And if we get him (Sotto) in, then the other guy I have to sit is a guy named June Mar Fajardo, who had 16 points in 28 minutes,” Reyes added.
“I’m sure a lot of people are going to wonder why but between sitting AJ and Kai and June Mar, there was just no opportunity and the match-ups just didn’t favor Kai.”
Still, Reyes expects Sotto to get extra minutes of their subsequent video games in opposition to Angola on Sunday and Italy on Tuesday.
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“But again, in the next game and in the game after, we should be able to see more of him.”
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
