Gilas takes on unsung Palestine

Gilas begins road to Rio. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

CHANGSHA CITY, China—Gilas Pilipinas takes its first step on the difficult road to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Wednesday against a Palestine crew seeing action for the first time in the Fiba Asia Championship.

Game time is 11:45 a.m. at Changsha Social Work College gym here with the Filipinos installed as the heavy favorites to dominate Group B play and lead the march of qualifiers merging with the top three teams in Group A, where defending champion Iran belongs.

The game against the Palestinians is an unpredictable one for the Filipinos.

The Fiba Asia first-timers’ brand of play is said to be “westernized,” with its well-toured star player, Sani Sakakini, having played in leagues in China, Jordan and Lebanon in recent years.

Filipino fans are only familiar with the game of former Palestine team mainstay Omar Krayem, who suited up for GlobalPort in the PBA Governors’ Cup last season and did fairly well.

Krayem and another Palestinian standout, Nicola Fadayel, however, failed to make it to the national team for one reason or another.

The Palestinians may be the Group B dark horse but the Filipinos are still expected to run roughshod over them with a roster built to battle for the gold medal.

The naturalized Andray Blatche will provide all sorts of match-up problems against any team in the tournament with his size, agility and deft outside touch.

“We need to play the best defense we possibly can because we already have the offensive tools that we need,” said Gilas forward Marc Pingris in Filipino before the team left Manila on Monday.

Terrence Romeo is one of the offensive weapons that Gilas coach Tab Baldwin could surprise the opposition with.

Baldwin could also count on Jason Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo and even JC Intal to provide the scoring, with Gabe Norwood expected to do his share defensively like the 6-foot-5 Pingris.

Though Romeo did put his repertoire in full display in the Jones Cup in Chinese Taipei three weeks ago, the spike-haired guard could be unstoppable one-on-one.

Baldwin knows the quality of the opposition in the first round of group play and wants to use their first three games to prepare for the tougher battles ahead.

On Thursday, the Filipinos, runners-up to Iran in 2013 in Manila, slug it out with Hong Kong before closing out the first round against Kuwait on Friday.

Gilas has had a “gold medal or bust” mindset ever since its formation on Aug. 3 because only the winner of this tournament will book the lone continental slot in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.