HANGZHOU – Tim Cone spared Justin Brownlee from playing heavy minutes against Qatar, opting to reserve Gilas Pilipinas’ best player in the 19th Asian Games for the bigger battle ahead.
Why Justin Brownlee saw limited action vs Qatar
Brownlee only saw action for eight minutes in the national team’s 80-41 romp against the Qataris on Monday as a more important game awaits the Filipinos 18 hours later.
In the aftermath of the blowout win, Gilas will now meet Iran in the quarterfinals in a match up to be played at 12 noon of Tuesday at the Zijingang gymnasium.
“We want to get off quick and get the lead so we could bring Justin out of the game and have him ready for tomorrow (Tuesday) against Iran. That was one of our main goals and we’re able to do that,” noted Cone.
Brownlee, the leading scorer in all of Gilas’ games in the preliminary, was limited to just eight minutes against Qatar and finished with nine points and five rebounds.
The three-time PBA Best Import sat down the entire second half in what Cone described as part of the script designed by the team heading to the playoffs.
“All I want to say is that we have a script in which how we wanted to win this basketball tonight. We followed that script very well,” said the Gilas coach.
And against a rebuilding and well-rested Iran side, Cone said the Filipinos need fresh legs.
“We got to be fresh. Those guys (Iranians) are coming two days of rest so that’s their big edge against us,” he noted.
“That’s why it’s important we don’t extend Justin, and June Mar (Fajardo) and Scottie (Thompson) so much so we could be fresh to meet them.”
A win over Iran will put the Philippines in the semifinals to meet the winner between South Korea and defending champion China.
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