Even if the Akatsuki Five of Japan provef to the whole world last Friday that the 10th-best team in the world in the Australia Boomers can also bleed, Gilas Pilipinas cannot afford to be overconfident.
Nick Fazekas and Japan scored the mother of all upsets against Australia, Friday (FIBA.com)
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes is bracing for the worst that may come on Monday night as they face the Boomers, as he is sure that the visiting team will vent their frustrations on the Filipino cagers following that monumental upset.
This, even if Gilas is coming off its most impressive victory in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers: a 93-71 thumping of Chinese Taipei in Taiwan.
“I’m pretty certain yung talo ng Australia is going to make them go all the more intense and all the more hard against us,” Reyes told Tiebreaker Times Saturday evening, moments after their practice at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
“So we have to be prepared for that. Regardless of what happened in Taipei, we still have to be at our best coming into Monday.”
A lot of factors are actually in favor of the Philippines for the much-anticipated rematch: the momentum; the feel of the enormous 55,000-seater venue; and, of course, the Filipino crowd that will turn hostile on any visiting team.
But all of that, for Reyes, won’t come into play if Gilas will not play well.
“Basketball-wise, we have very little. If there’s an advantage, it’s we’re playing home, infront of our homecrowd. Pero even familiarity sa court, we don’t have that anyway kasi most of these guys ngayon lang din maglalaro dito eh,” he stressed.
“So yun lang talaga, yung sixth man, yung crowd. We are banking on that to be hopefully an advantage. But for that to be an advantage, we have to play well first. Kasi, kung masama laro namin, it doesn’t matter what the crowd does,” he added.
“So we have to make sure that we’re playing well, and hopefully the crowd will be a factor.”
