SEEING Damian Lillard's long bombs, Rain or Shine do-it-all player Gabe Norwood vividly remembers what former teammate Paul Lee does in practice.
"That's a practiced shot," said Norwood, believing Lillard spent hours in practice to develop that weapon.
Norwood had seen some amount of that in Lee in their workouts at Rain or Shine and in the national team.
"That's not a joke or play-around shot. An hour before practice starts, he's shooting from the distance. This is a shot he's comfortable with. And that's something they can incorporate in the game plan," said Norwood in a recent Sports Page episode on One Sports.
True enough, Lee also has had that weapon - of course not comparable to Lillard's mind-boggling distance ?- that he makes good use of with his mother ball club and with the Nationals.
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He's ready to take the shot from down deep with the game on the line.
It would be remembered the crucial foul he got from a Chinese defender while taking a trey at the buzzer in a bronze-medal game in the FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan, China in 2014. He made all three charities to lift Gilas past China.
In a rematch in the preliminary-round game of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Gilas faced the same situation in the dying seconds, and Lee once again was courageous enough to take the make-or-break shot from downtown.
Alas, Lee missed the target, and the Chinese scored some measure of revenge.
Even then, coach Yeng Guiao stood behind Lee, a player who had won many games for him at Rain or Shine with those gutsy shots.
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He's a 35.4-percent three-point shooter through eight seasons in the pros.
Through the 2019 campaign, the former UE Warrior was already inside the Top 20 in the list of players with most three-pointers made in their careers.
He made 109 triples last season to jack up his career total to 717. (SB)
