Gilas to gym from airport, prepares for Taiwan five
From the airport, Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes and his team headed straight to the gym yesterday afternoon, underscoring a great desire to be at their best in their first home game in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers versus Chinese Taipei at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tomorrow.
With a close 77-71 win over Team Japan in Tokyo on Friday, Reyes said it’s obvious they have plenty of room for improvement.
“We were good, but we have to be better,” said Reyes in a Sports5 report.
Reyes said he had a mixed feeling of relief and apprehension on their tough grind against the Japanese.
“Yung feeling na parang nakahinga ka ng kaunti. Pero may kahalong apprehension kasi masama yung nilaro natin. (I was relieved but with apprehension because we played bad) particularly Andray (Blatche). I think the lack of time playing together manifested in the six turnovers that he had,” said Reyes.
“The good thing was that we managed to carve out a victory while shooting 34 percent from the field. That’s a really, really bad percentage. And we missed free throws as well,” Reyes also said.
A bad win it may be, Reyes hopes to build on it as they try to sweep their Round One assignments in this Asian WC qualifiers among 16 teams. The best seven grab tickets to the World Cup in China in 2019.
Taipei, on the other hand, is coming off a 66-104 rout by Australia as the Taiwanese fly over to Manila.
Coach Chun-San Chou fielded a mix of young players and veterans in their game against Australia led by naturalized player Quincy Davis, hotshots Liu Cheng, Cheng-Ju Lu, Yi-Hsiang Chou, forwards Po-Chen Chou, Po-Hsun Chou, guards Yu-An Chiang and Kai-Yan Lee and center Kuan-Chuan Chen.
Both coaches can opt to change their lineup for their 7:30 p.m. duel tomorrow.
The Filipinos will enjoy momentum plus the home-court advantage in the Big Dome game where they have a chance to avenge a heartbreaking loss to Chinese Taipei in the elimination round in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship over at the MOA Arena in Pasay City.
Reyes himself was the coach of that team which then featured Marcus Douthit, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Marc Pingris, Ranidel de Ocampo, Larry Fonacier, Jeff Chan, Gary David, Jimmy Alapag, LA Tenorio, Jayson Castro and Gabe Norwood.
Gilas recovered from that loss to Taipei and went on to challenge titleholder Iran for the crown.
“We’re still in tournament mode,” said Reyes, reminding his team they’re not done with their job with the victory in Tokyo.
“Celebrate and do whatever you want on Monday evening, after the game in Manila. But for now, all of our effort has to be towards Chinese Taipei,” Reyes told his wards.
Elsewhere on Friday, Iraq stunned Iran, 74-66, in Amman while Kazakhstan humbled Qatar in its home soil in Doha, fashioning out an 82-70 win.
On Thursday, it was South Korea over New Zealand, 86-80; China over Hong Kong, 96-44; Jordan over Syria, 109-72; and Lebanon over India, 107-72.