THE path that Gilas Pilipinas has taken in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup is certainly far from ideal, but the juice that awaits the highly-scrutinized team might just very well be worth the squeeze.
Under the microscope following an underwhelming run in the group stages of the tournament, Gilas now gets the chance to turn the tide in the quarterfinals of the tournament when it battles mighty Australia in the knockout quarterfinals game on Wednesday, 7 PM (Philippine time).
READ: Cone hopes Gilas can carry momentum of OT win to match vs Aussies
Redemption will come two-fold for Gilas should the game end with the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
Not only will they win back goodwill from this country’s finicky basketball fanbase, it also paints over that ugly brawl with the same country back in 2018 with something a whole lot more positive as they play each other for the first time since that incident in the Philippine Arena.
This has all the makings of the ultimate feel good movie – an embattled underdog handing Australia its first loss since shifting federations in 2017, while finally putting that grim incident in the backseat with a resounding win.
Except that this isn’t a movie, and even if it is, feel-good films sometimes don’t end in wins for the protagonists.
For starters, the Boomers have swept their group with an average winning margin of of 25.6 points per game in this tournament.
While they aren’t flexing their NBA talent in this tournament, they still formed a highly-talented squad with four players averaging in double-digits and at least seven players averaging seven points apiece.
Australia’s pretty good at hitting the three-ball, as they ranked fourth in threes per game with 12 just behind Japan, Korea and New Zealand in that order, while being the second-most efficient team from beyond the arc by shooting 41.9 percent just behind China.
On the flipside, stopping the three ball has been one of the biggest defensive issues for Gilas in this tournament, as they’ve given up 11.7 threes on a healthy 41 percent shooting in four games so far.
READ Who's left from the Gilas-Australia brawl back in 2018?
But that doesn’t mean that this is an unscalable mountain to climb for Gilas, nor do they need to be in a movie in order to pull off the upset on the mighty Australia.
Not too long ago, this team just took down world No. 6 Latvia, and sure they had a highly-talented 7-foot-3 player at their disposal in Kai Sotto during that time, but the fact remains that this team, on a good day, already knows what it feels to take down a world power.
Those 'good days' have been a rarity for Gilas even in the lead-up to this tournament, so much that it’s fair to anticipate one coming from them sometime soon.
All it takes is one night for stars to align – if they can stay disciplined on defense all night long, avoid fouling while limiting their opponents’ three balls then they have a chance at stealing the game away from the impeccable Australians.
And with a player like Justin Brownlee on their team, a fair chance to work his magic in the end game is all that Gilas needs to happen in this game.
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