Really bumpy road
Justin Brownlee acknowledged that Gilas Pilipinas will have its work cut out in the third window of the Fiba World Cup with two difficult road matches against New Zealand and Australia to close out the first round.
The Philippines will be without its usual mainstays for the upcoming set of games, beginning with the July 3 match with New Zealand in Auckland and July 6 in Perth against Australia, thus putting Brownlee and company in a tall order to hurdle both the Tall Blacks and the Boomers.
“We’ve got to match their physicality and understand how to play through that,” Brownlee said recently at Playtime Filoil Centre in San Juan, during practice that the team opened to the fans.
Gilas lost both times to the two Oceania squads in the previous window in late February at home, dropping a close one to New Zealand, 69-66, before being battered by Australia, 93-66.
That sent Gilas to a 1-2 record for third in Group A, though it is already assured of advancing to the second round of qualification.
But Gilas won’t be having Quentin Millora-Brown, Scottie Thompson and Calvin Oftana for the two games due to injury-related concerns, while Kai Sotto is still not going to play, this time to pursue his NBA quest through the Summer League in Las Vegas.
Troy Rosario, Justine Baltazar and Mike Phillips are the latest additions to coach Tim Cone’s 12-man squad, to offset the loss of Millora-Brown and Sotto and to help out the other big men, June Mar Fajardo and AJ Edu.
Fresh off PBA title
Brownlee will suit up again for Gilas, fresh from being one of the primary figures in Barangay Ginebra’s run to the PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown, giving the long-time import his seventh championship.
He is expected to come in energized by the recent title run that made him the winningest import in PBA history.
Brownlee is also out to atone for his rollercoaster second window in which he was held to just four points on 2-of-10 shooting against New Zealand before posting 20 points on an 8-of-19 clip against Australia.
The 38-year-old is averaging 16.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.3 steals in the qualifiers.
“We just have to be aggressive,” he said. “No matter what they do, as far as how they are guarding us, we just have to stay aggressive.”
Meanwhile, Gilas will have two exhibition games in New Zealand against local teams before the third window takes place.
Gilas takes on the Manawatu Jets on Sunday before playing the Franklin Bulls on Tuesday. Both teams play in New Zealand’s version of the National Basketball League.
