Wutipong Dasom’s record-setting outing came on Monday afternoon at the expense of Myanmar, scoring a tournament-high 40 markers to help the Thais bounce back from their loss to Indonesia and whip Myanmar by 67.
Thailand is indeed on cloud nine after the victory, but they are all aware — especially Dasom — that a daunting challenge is upon the horizon right away: facing top dog Gilas Pilipinas tomorrow, Tuesday evening.
“The Philippines is a team that [even] without plays or without coaching, the players know how to play basketball,” described Dasom, who has Irish lineage, of Gilas, moments after the Thais’ 102-35 destruction of the Burmese side.
The Thais, competitive as always in the region, are expected to give the Filipinos a good fight. But Dasom does not just want to rely much on the hype surrounding them, saying that they should still play sharp to provide enough challenge.
“When it comes down to it, we have to understand the game in a way that we can challenge them,” said Dasom. “In order for us to scare them or challenge them, we have to be composed and play really good basketball.
“We gotta play our AAA game for that,” the 26-year-old declared.
Their match against Myanmar became of help for the Thais, according to the former ABL cager. As they cruised to the easy win to lift their card to 3-1, Thailand was also able to rest their starters, especially leading scorer Chitchai Ananti.
And Dasom hopes that the break their main players were given will benefit them.
“We got to rest our starters. So hopefully, they will be energized, be focused for the game tomorrow,” Dasom hoped.
“In terms of tomorrow, we’re focused. That is our main target — coming here and playing against the Philippines because we knew it’s in Manila, and the Philippines is the number one country in Southeast Asia and ranking pretty amazing in Asia.
“It’s gonna be fun, and we’re gonna go out and play, compete, and hopefully give them a challenge,” closed Dasom.
