Gilas battles Turks Friday night

Gilas Pilipinas after its win over Iran. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

CAN Gilas Pilipinas really hold its own against world-class competition when the Olympic Qualifying Tournament finally tips off next week?

Against a possible Final Four foe on home soil and with the backing of the whole nation, the Filipinos can’t get a better simulation of that tournament than Friday when they slug it out with Turkey in their final tuneup game before the OQT at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

The Nationals hope to make the game closer this time after they were blown off the court by the Turks, 103-68, two weeks ago in Istanbul after failing to recover from a bum start.

“It will be good playing in front of the home folks,” national coach Tab Baldwin told the Inquirer yesterday. “We need to play with energy, more smarts than we did in Europe.

“We need to make them (Turks) adjust to our speed and quickness and not be overwhelmed by their size,” added Baldwin, who admitted that they are “focusing hard on France at the moment.”

The 7 p.m. contest will just be the fifth full game for Gilas since Tab Baldwin assembled this batch of Nationals six weeks ago.

Gilas is 2-2 so far, with victories over undermanned Iran in Manila and China in Italy, where the Chinese played without NBA veteran Yi Jianlian and newly drafted Houston Rockets center Zhou Qi.

The losses have been horrid, though, with the other setback coming at the hands of the Italians, 106-70, at the start of a four-nation pocket tournament in Bologna last week.

But today, Gilas will be playing with the roster that will do battle, from July 5 to 10, against France and New Zealand in the first round.

This will be the first time Filipino fans will see their latest squad in action—or since Calvin Abueva and LA Tenorio were cut from the team last Sunday.

Andray Blatche will, as usual, be the focal point of the Philippine game on both ends, with Jason Castro and Terrence Romeo expected to see a lot of action in the backcourt.

Meanwhile, France and Canada, the favorites in the Manila OQT, have finalized their lineups with Tristan Thompson, a member of the Cleveland squad that recently won the NBA championship over Golden State, joining the Canadians.

Thompson will be the fourth active NBA player in the roster after Corey Joseph, Joel Anthony and Tyler Ennis. The only big name that begged off from Canada was Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins.

France will come practically in full force with superstar point guard Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs leading a crack squad that also has Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw.

Turkey, which arrived in the country together with the Filipinos on Tuesday night, will be bannered by hulking Omer Asik.