Mission possible

Photo from FIBA.Basketball

TAIPEI—It seemed impossible when this whole Fiba Qualifying tournament started, that task of beating Australia in the region.

Ranked 10th in the world, the Boomers were deemed untouchable by experts—until Japan did the unthinkable and gave everyone all sorts of ideas on how Australia can actually be beaten in this tournament.

Plus, of course, the fact that Gilas Pilipinas will be coming off what many believe is its best game in years—and probably ever since it was assembled—gives the basketball-crazy Filipinos this feeling that something good can happen at Philippine Arena on Monday.

“It gives you hope,” tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan said Saturday morning, the day after seeing the Nationals tear Chinese Taipei to shreds, 93-71, behind San Miguel Beer behemoth June Mar Fajardo and TNT KaTropa stalwart Jayson Castro.

“It was possibly the best I’ve seen them play,” Pangilinan said while making his way to his business class seat back to Manila, pride obvious in the way he talked after the Filipinos’ most impressive handling of their rivals in the last five years.

“And I hope our countrymen come out and support us (when Gilas plays Australia) on Monday,” he went on. “That game crystallizes our standing (in the group and in the region).”

PBA board governors led by Alfrancis Chua and Robert Non of the San Miguel Corp. group and Alaska’s Dickie Bachmann as well as commissioner Willie Marcial and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlilio led the small cheering gallery for the Filipinos Friday.

And that was enough to spur the Nationals on. Imagine, then, what a feet-stomping home throng could do for them against Australia.

Coach Chot Reyes said that the Aussies were far from the minds of the team before the Chinese Taipei clash on Friday night in front of a hostile gallery, which the Filipinos fended off with ease to win with utmost authority.

Everyone can now expect Reyes and his able to staff to dissect that game in Chiba, Japan, down to the last detail as the Filipinos set out at cavernous 53,000-seat Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, looking to pull off the impossible.

“We will now try and figure out ways on how to beat that team,” Reyes said, referring to the Boomers, who scored an 84-68 destruction of the Filipinos last Feb. 22. “But with what happened in Japan (where the Aussies took their first loss in the tournament), they will certainly come out like wounded tigers (against the Filipinos).”

Australia added two NBA veterans to its roster for this window, tapping Milwaukee Bucks center Thon Maker and point guard Matthew Dellavedova.

The outside shot will be crucial for Reyes’ gang on Monday as Gilas tries to free up the inside for Fajardo and naturalized center Andray Blatche. In their first meeting, the Filipinos made just 5-for-19 from three-point range, and Reyes knows that won’t be enough in their return bout.

“We have to be on target with our outside shooting,” Reyes said. “With Australia’s power and size, we need that so we can loosen up their defense.”

Team Philippines has everything it needs going into this game—the idea from Japan and the fine form coming into the game.

And what a treat this would be if the Filipinos can indeed pull off the impossible.