Gilas Pilipinas huddles throughout a recreation towards the Dominican Republic within the Fiba World Cup. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
Gilas Pilipinas’ subsequent project within the World Cup might not pack the identical punch like its Friday night time tormentors, however nationwide coach Chot Reyes is cautious simply the identical.
What Angola lacks in ability and NBA star energy, it makes up for in protection in keeping with Reyes, and the Filipinos must be able to take care of that come recreation time Sunday at Good Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon Metropolis.
“We’ve got to make it possible for we deal with the defensive strain of Angola,” he mentioned. “The large factor for us is to play our tempo, quick tempo, accelerated tempo, however underneath management, ensuring that we’re imposing our recreation on the opposite group.”
That’s not the one strain the Philippines faces.
Once they tip off towards Angola at 8 p.m., the Filipinos are hoping to scrub up their act following an error-riddled recreation towards the Dominican Republic, all within the hopes of protecting alive their bid for an outright 2024 Paris Olympics spot alive.
“The story was we had 19 turnovers and we gave up like 17 offensive rebounds,” Reyes mentioned. “We shot the ball nicely, however they only had an entire lot extra makes an attempt than we did.”
The highest-finishing nation of each continent will earn a direct ticket to the French capital for an Olympic stint.
African berth
Angola’s Childe Dundao throughout a recreation towards Italy within the Fiba World Cup at Philippine Area in Bocaue, Bulacan. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
The Black Antelopes are additionally within the working for that prize among the many African nations and they’ll head into the match additionally desperate to bounce again from a loss.
And Childe Dundão, the smallest member of the squad who put up a team-high 19 factors within the 81-67 loss to Italy, mentioned that they continue to be a assured bunch regardless of the botched upset of the Azzurri.
“We’re assured as a result of we had recreation at the moment, and we’ll attempt to compete once more with the Philippines,” he mentioned.
Added motivation
Gilas has added motivation to beat Angola as doing so not solely provides them their first win on this World Cup, but it surely absolves this system for its horrendous outing within the 2019 version of the match held in Foshan, China.
There, Gilas fell to the Angolans in additional time, 84-81—a reminiscence that ought to nonetheless sting for CJ Perez, who was massive in that match, and Kiefer Ravena, who muffed a triple that will’ve pressured one other additional session.
However all these causes are not any greater than the race for the Olympic ticket amongst Asian groups.
“This can be a promising begin [compared] to the final World Cup begin that we had,” Ravena, even with a protracted face, advised a pair of reporters after Friday’s loss, earlier than heading for the dugout. “Hopefully, it will get higher from this, sure?”
Jordan Clarkson, Gilas’ naturalized ace who fouled out within the last 3:32 of the loss to the Dominicans, is trying to verify of that.
“Simply maintain competing like we did now,” he mentioned following a 27-point job spiked with seven rebounds and simply as many assists.
“We fought onerous. One thing didn’t go our means in the direction of the top, we simply acquired to complete nicely and get the subsequent one.”
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