WHEN Gilas Pilipinas faces Iran on Sunday night, the national squad won't just be looking to finally capture its only win in the Fiba Basketball World Cup 2019.
It will also be eyeing to avoid finishing dead last in the 32-team field.
Unlike its previous four opponents in the quadrennial showpiece, Gilas will be taking on a familiar foe for its final assignment in Iran, a team it last beat in the 2015 during the second round of the Fiba Asia Championship in Changsha, China.
Everything hasn’t gone right for Gilas in China, losing to by 46, 59, and three points to Italy, Serbia, and Angola, in that order in the group stage before a 19-point loss to Tunisia at the start of the classification round.
With Gilas already out of the running for an outright berth in the 2020 Tokyo Games or even a place in the Olympic qualifiers, the least Gilas can do to salvage its campaign is avoid finishing dead last.
A victory against Iran will, at best, put them somewhere between the 25th and 28th spots depending on the results of the other games in each group.
Winning against Iran, however, is easier said than done. Gilas has lost two in a row to Iran during the qualifiers of the Fiba Basketball World Cup, both by eight-point margins.
Another loss by Gilas against Iran will most likely leave them in 32nd place as the points differential comes into play to break ties and determine the placings.
More than one team will definitely end up winless in the competition. But if Gilas wounds up without a win, the rankings among winless teams will be determined by their point differential in the entire tournament.
As things stand, Gilas has the worst points differential among all winless teams in the competition heading into Saturday’s matches at -127. That should be the worst unless other winless teams like Japan, Korea, Jordan, and Senegal lose by ghastly margins in their final matches.
So a win over Iran is imperative if Gilas hopes to avoid finishing in last place.
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