Gilas Pilipinas in the course of the nationwide anthem forward of its match within the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers in opposition to Chinese language Taipei. –FIBA PHOTO
Gilas Pilipinas hurtles towards what was initially a nonbearing recreation whose solely worth was to afford the Nationals some kind of bragging rights and serve a tuneup forward of the Fiba Asia Cup’s flagship occasion in Saudi Arabia in six months.
However the return match in opposition to New Zealand this Sunday in Auckland has develop into a high-stakes conflict as the 2 nations break their 4-1 tie for the Group B lead, which additionally in the end awards the winner a positive draw within the continental meet in Jeddah this August.
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The Filipinos missed cornerstone Kai Sotto within the 91-84 shock loss to Chinese language Taipei at Taipei Heping Stadium, as Gilas struggled to seek out one other dependable supply of manufacturing outdoors naturalized ace Justin Brownlee and one other younger pillar in Dwight Ramos.
Brownlee had 39 factors, six rebounds and eight assists, whereas Ramos chipped in 15 factors and 5 rebounds. AJ Edu delivered 10 factors in his first recreation again from a knee difficulty, however the glut of these buckets got here slightly too late for the Philippines, who needed to get out of a 13-point rut earlier than making issues aggressive within the crunch.
Telling absence
Scottie Thompson, who was sensational in opposition to New Zealand again in November, completed with simply 4 factors after going 1-for-8 from the sphere. CJ Perez and Calvin Oftana, each bonafide scorers within the PBA, fired blanks within the loss. Carl Tamayo—touted to be one of many huge contributors on this window for his latest prolific outing in South Korea—was simply as forgettable.
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The 7-foot-3 Sotto was simply one of many the explanation why Gilas was overwhelmingly essentially the most environment friendly squad within the match going into Thursday’s recreation, as his command of the protection opens up scoring alternatives not just for himself but additionally for his teammates.
And his absence was telling, one thing which the Tall Blacks will attempt to exploit when the 2 sides go at it once more on Sunday morning (Manila time) at Spark Area.
The hosts, retooled and maybe rather more vengeful than the Chinese language, are coming off a 41-point whipping of Hong Kong, with their protection as their foremost weapon.
“Trying on the stats, we have been in a position to pressure 24 turnovers, I feel, and we’re actually capitalizing on that. And mainly that’s the place actually the sport was gained for us,” stated New Zealand coach Judd Flavell. “We’re gonna take our learnings with us for the sport in opposition to the Philippines in a few days’ time.
“We obtained loads to construct. That is my second marketing campaign with the group. We have now half a workforce going right here from November, and the remaining [are] new to the system. So we knew that we have been gonna be possibly clunky in a few locations. However we actually need to guarantee that on the finish of the day, our protection was getting the job executed.”
Took the blame
Nationwide coach Tim Cone took the blame for the loss to the Chinese language, saying he may’ve primed his prices higher for the match.
“We knew they have been going to be a lot improved from the final time we performed them, however they have been even higher than we thought. That’s on me. Little question, I ought to have ready us higher,” he wrote on X.
“There may be clearly loads that I’d have executed in another way in that recreation if given one other probability, however that isn’t doable now. Solely factor we will do at this level is transfer on. I might be higher. We might be higher,” he added.
