This immediately made Philippines head coach Reyes lose his composure.
He stood on the sidelines and unleashed a furious tirade at the referee.
He spat so much that the referee's face was speckled with saliva.
Of course, he knew that going after the referee now was practically suicide.
Furiously cursing out the referee to his face was bound to earn him a technical foul.
But he was only trying to use this method to fire up his players.
There had been plenty of examples of this, both in the NBA and in international basketball.
When a coach roared at the referee and got called for a technical, it could actually fire up the players, making them play more fiercely and eventually come back to win.
Popovich had used this trick many times before, and had even been ejected from games on multiple occasions.
Often, his players would be fired up after he was ejected and manage to come back and win.
So Reyes was trying the same tactic now.
But the referee wasn't about to let him get away with it and immediately hit him with a T.
The crowd also booed Reyes and the Philippines loudly.
"Look at the Philippines coach. The guy's like a monkey, jumping all over the place."
"If you can't win, you can't win. Yelling won't help."
"If that worked, coaches wouldn't need to learn how to draw up plays or manage their lineups. Everyone would just try to outshout each other."
With the Philippines having been called for two technical fouls in a row, Wang Yi stepped to the line to shoot two free throws.
After he made both, the score stood at 59–4.
With Soto ejected, the Philippines had lost a key offensive presence and defensive anchor in the paint.
The backup center