HANGZHOU—The Philippines rides the momentum of its rout of Bahrain the other day when it battles Thailand at the resumption Thursday of the men’s 5×5 basketball competition of the 19th Asian Games.
The game is set at 11 a.m. at the Zhejiang University Zijingang Gymnasium with Gilas Pilipinas going for a follow-up victory on its 89-61 rout of Bahrain and former Philippine Basketball Association import Wayne Chism at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium last Tuesday.
Thailand, led by the prolific ex-UCLA star Bruin Tyler Lamb, hopes to rebound from a 97-63 thrashing at the hands of Jordan and former TNT Giga import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson also Tuesday.
Hollis-Jefferson, who will be rejoining TNT for the 2023-2024 PBA season once the Asian Games are over, played 30 minutes against the Thais and scored 20 points on 6 of 15 shooting with seven rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Gilas head coach Tim Cone was talking about getting his hands on the video of the Jordan-Thailand game even before he had walked off the court after their match against Bahrain.
“We need to break down their game,” Cone said. “We saw them [Thais] in the Southeast Asian Games, but we’re not matched up against them. They were knocked out by Cambodia. So we hope we’ll have a better feel of Thailand than we did. We need to because Thailand’s a much stronger team than Bahrain.”
The Philippines won the gold medal in the SEA Games, beating host Cambodia in the final.
As on the eve of the game against Bahrain, Cone presided over a film viewing of the Thailand-Jordan game with spliced clips of the Thais’ top players other than Lamb, who was 3 of 14 from the field, including 2 of 10 beyond the arc.
His two rebounds were among the lowest for the team.
In his place, 5-foot-8 guard Frederick Lish had 13 points on 6 of 19 from the field but was abysmal from outside, going 1 of 9 in treys.
The Gilas defense is expected to zero in on Thailand’s other licensed perimeter shooters like Nattakarn Muangboon, who was 3 of 7 in triples, and Jakongmee Morgan (7 pts), Naratip Boonserm (6) and Nakom Jaisanuk, all of whom took three treys each or more against Jordan.
Steady improvement as the Games move on is Gilas’ priority mindset, according to Cone.
“We got to go up the level, we got to continue to rise in our game because we’re going to play a tougher opponent each time out,” he said.
“I mean, from Bahrain to Thailand to Jordan, and perhaps to the next round, whether it be Korea or Japan or whoever, and hopefully to the semis, maybe to the finals, we got to continue to lift the level of our game, that’s important.”
A one and a half-hour practice was scheduled at 1 p.m.
After Thailand, Gilas faces Jordan on September 30 at 5:30 p.m.
“Jordan is a much, much, much better team than Thailand,” said Cone when asked to rate Gilas’ preliminary round opponents.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes (CANON EOS R6)
