GILAS Pilipinas called off its practice on Monday night following the failure of a Taiwan team to come over and at the same time, give way to the coming playoffs of the PBA Governors Cup.
National oach Tim Cone said injuries to two key players of the Chinese Taipei team the Filipinos were supposed to play in a friendly at the Meralco gym prompted the team to pull the plug on the tune-up match.
It should have been the national team’s third straight scrimmage in as many weeks in preparation for the 30th Southeast Asian Games after playing Alab Pilipinas in back-to-back Mondays.
“I should have told you they cancelled that about a week and a half ago. Their two main players got injured apparently, and they were supposed to come here and do a series of games. They decided to back out, not just from us but from other teams as well. So they didn’t come over,” said Cone.
And then there’s the coming playoffs, with the elimination round of the season-ending conference down to its final playdate on Wednesday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Top seed NLEX battles streaking Alaska in the curtain raiser, while troubled San Miguel Beer clashes with skidding TnT Katropa in the main game that’s expected to have a playoff atmosphere.
“We might as well let the guys really dress and get ready, get through the quarters so that they can out their total focus on Gilas and the SEA Games,” said Cone.
“Their focus is somewhere else, their energy is being reserved for something else. That’s why I’d like to get the quarterfinals done and then we can really focus on the SEA Games.”
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