Jordan Clarkson sends a beautiful farewell to the Philippines team and the FIBA World Cup 2023
With just one explosive match at the level of a quality scorer in the NBA, Jordan Clarkson put the entire Philippine team on his shoulders with one of the most watchable scoring streaks in the FIBA World Cup 2023.
In just over 3 minutes of play, the former Sixth Man of The Year, currently playing for the Utah Jazz Club, scored 20 points for the Philippines against the away team China. From this push, the Southeast Asian representative went straight to the final victory 96-75.
From a tense match with a score of 40-39 belonging to China after the first two rounds, Clarkson's explosion completely pushed the balance towards the Philippines in the third round.
In these 10 minutes alone, Jordan Clarkson and his teammates scored 34 points, nearly equal to the total number of points they had in the first two halves (39 points).
Entering the final half with a 22-point advantage and the enthusiastic support of the fans, the Philippines received victory as a farewell gift to the home fans.
This is Jordan Clarkson's best personal performance at the FIBA World Cup 2023, and is also the game scoring the most points he has had from mid-January until now if including the second half of the NBA season.
As for the Chinese team, their NBA star Li Kaier (Kyle Anderson) scored 17 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. The whole team had a successful shooting rate of 52.5% in the 2-point area but only achieved 5-22 3PT.
This result, though, cannot help the Philippines close tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympics. However, this is a necessary victory for Jordan Clarkson and his teammates to leave the FIBA World Cup 2023 with their heads held high.
For China, this result also somewhat disappointed the fans of the country's billion people. They will be absent for the second consecutive Olympics (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024).
