Reality check hits Gilas ahead of Fiba Asia Cup

FILE PHOTO – Guard Ray Parks and national team assistant coach Jimmy Alapag during practice at Meralco Gym. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

There were occasional bursts of laughter during practice on Thursday.

Controlled scrimmages between Gilas Pilipinas’ Fiba Asia Cup team and Southeast Asian Games squad were intense, but fun was still written on the players’ faces from the ever playful Calvin Abueva to the usually stoic Mac Belo and always serious Terrence Romeo.

But beyond the feeling of ease throughout Gilas’ second to the last training session before leaving for Lebanon early Sunday morning, reality check hits.

“As you can see, the Fiba Asia team, they’re having a hard time against the SEA Games team. Can you imagine if that’s China?” Reyes told reporters.

“But like I always keep saying, we gotta work with what we have. We had to rest the players who have games tomorrow so those who  are not playing tomorrow were the ones who scrimmaged,” said Reyes, referring to June Mar Fajardo and Jayson Castro, who will suit up for their respective PBA clubs on Friday.

Reyes admitted the team still has a lot of catching up to do to reach its desired form in time for the Fiba Asia tilt.

“As you can see, we’re very far from being in competitive shape so all we can do is really make the best of what we have and have fun like this kasi there’s just so much we can do. We’ll just try our best.”

Gilas opens its campaign against China on Wednesday. The team takes a break on Friday, then holds its last practice here Saturday morning.