GILAS Pilipinas plays a must-win game in its bid to advance to the second round when it goes up against Angola on Sunday night in the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Philippines and Angola go for their first win of the tournament following their opening-game defeats. Gametime is at 8 p.m.
See Chot fumes over Fajardo non-call, says Gilas deserves more respect from refs
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas encourages Gilas fans to wear blue in the all-important game for the Nationals, who are coming off an 87-81 defeat against Dominican Republic.
The two countries have clashed in Fiba's showpiece before. In 2019, Angola defeated the Philippines in overtime, 84-81, in their final game in the group stage.

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes is definitely not looking back to that loss that saw the Filipinos coming back from a huge deficit to keep the game competitive only to falter in the end in one of Gilas’ five losses in the tournament.
“I really think this is a different Angola team as much as this is also a very different Philippine team. A brand new ballgame as far as I’m concerned,” said Reyes.
Reyes isn’t even looking too far ahead even as a loss will most likely keep them out of the race for a place for the second round with powerhouse Italy still on their schedule.
One of the focus of Gilas against the world No. 41 is not to repeat their numerous turnovers they committed against Dominican Republic.
They are also wary of the 1-2 punch of Angola in Childe Dundao and Bruno Fernando, who combined for 32 points in their 81-67 loss to Italy on Friday.
“We shot the ball well. We shot the ball better than Dominican but they just had a lot more attempts that we did. The story was our 19 turnovers and we gave up 17 offensive rebounds. We have to make sure that we have to cope with the defensive pressure of Angola,” said Reyes.
Gilas will definitely hope that Jordan Clarkson would be able to stay longer in the game. The Utah Jazz standout had a game-high 28 points against Dominican Republic but fouled out with still three minutes to play and the match still a close game.
Following their match against Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns, the bigs led by Fajardo would also play a big responsibility as they try to contain another NBA player in Fernando, a back-up center for the Atlanta Hawks.
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