THE anticipation of Filipino basketball fans ends on Friday night as Gilas Pilipinas will finally take the floor in the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup when it takes on Dominican Republic at the Philippine Arena.
Gilas Pilipinas vs Dominican Republic preview
The Philippine men’s basketball team looks to open the campaign with a bang in front of an expected banner crowd on a Friday that was declared a holiday of sorts with classes in public schools and government work in Metro Manila and Bulacan suspended for the event.
Game time is at 8 p.m. with the local organizing committee aiming to break the Fiba attendance record of 32,616 fans in 1994.
All eyes will be on Gilas Pilipinas on whether its build-up from the qualifiers to the three-month preparation from June to August would translate into results on the court.
“Everybody knows our preparation has been very, very interesting, to say the least,” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes, referring to the whirlwind preparations of the Nationals over the last months.
The three-month build-up was marred by injuries with reigning MVP Scottie Thompson as one of the biggest casualties after he suffered a fractured hand.
But eventually, Gilas’ preparations stabilized with Jordan Clarkson and Kai Sotto coming in to the build-up a few weeks before the World Cup, and Thompson eventually recovering from the injury.
“We started very early. We really want to put on a long preparation time for the World Cup. Unfortunately, we got hit with injuries. We knew that there are certain players who will come in late and we had planned for it. But we could never plan for injuries. That made the preparation very interesting,” said Reyes.
Gilas though will face a litmus test as it takes on a Dominican Republic team that beefed up its roster following the inclusion of Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns.
The entry of Towns has suddenly strengthened the world No. 23-ranked Dominican Republic into a legitimate contender to come out of Group A. Reyes, however, is solely focused on what the team can control and what is in front of them.
“I’ve learned in this kind of competition not to think about and worry about chances. It doesn’t matter who you are playing. Your chances are going to be very difficult. The competition is so tough that if you spend about thinking about your chances, it’s not very useful. We rather focus on productive things… If we do that, it helps our chances,” said Reyes.
“It’s hard to answer those questions. If I tell you, ‘Yes, we like it’, people will say that we are overconfident. But if we say ‘Nah, Dominican Republic is also tough.’ People might think we are already giving up even before the fight. Like I said, we have a completely different approach,” said Reyes.
The Gilas coach is hopeful that the crowd will come out and play a factor in the game against Dominican Republic.
“One thing is for sure. We will need the support and the prayers of the crowd. I think that’s very, very important. We have to be able to punch above our weight. The crowd will be a big determining factor to be able to help us. And I think the most important thing for us is coming in with a very calm, focused, intentional yet aggressive mindset,” said Reyes.
Dominican Republic coach Nestor "Che" Garcia is also wary about the Philippines, ranked No. 40 in the world.
“We are in a good moment right now. We qualified to the World Cup… Our exhibition game, we showed our good level. We trust too much in ourselves with the way we play. We know that the Philippines, they have good shooters,” said the Argentinian coach.
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