Gilas Could Still Advance In FIBA World Cup If….

Gilas Pilipinas’ heartbreaking loss in Group A match against Angola on Sunday has not only dimmed the hopes of the Philippine men’s national basketball team advancing to the next round of the ongoing FIBA World Cup but the chances of the country in securing an outright berth in the 2024 Olympics.

A victory by Japan over Finland, 98-88, also on Sunday made the task of getting the Olympics ticket—reserved for the best Asian team after the FIBA World Cup—even tougher for Gilas whose 70-80 loss to Angola is already their second in the 3-game group stage. 

Gilas earlier dropped what many viewed as a “winnable game” versus the Dominican Republic.

It is still possible for Gilas to advance to the second round of the World Cup, and may be even salvage the free pass to qualify to the Olympics. 

But for that to happen,  the Jordan Clarkson-led Gilas Pilipinas will have to dig deep and find a way to beat higher-ranked Italy by at least 13 points while Angola must drop its game against the still-unbeaten Dominican Republic to forge a three-way tie.  Both games will be played on Tuesday.

If the Philippines, Angola and Italy end the group stage tied with one win each, the quotient system will kick in. The current quotient has Italy at plus 14 given their winning margin against Angola, the Philippines is at minus 10 after the loss to Angola, while Angola is at minus 4 because of its 14-point loss to Italy and its 10-point win versus Gilas. 

“The first thing for us is to make sure that we come out and prepare and find a way to win that game. Then, the quotient will take care of itself. For us, like I said, we focus on what we need to do to be able to compete against the top 10 team in the world,” Gilas head coach Chot Reyes told a news conference after the Anglola game.

“In the end, it is going to be dependent on other games. It is not going to be in our hands. The only thing that’s within our control right now is the next game and we can’t worry about the other things that’s going on,” Reyes added.