Gilas has rougher road to next round

Most powerhouses and a lot of the Fiba World Cup underdogs like Gilas Pilipinas touched down on different cities in China on Thursday as the Filipinos officially open their quest in just over 48 hours against formidable Italy in the province of Foshan.

Title favorite the United States also arrived via an all-night flight to Shanghai from Sydney in Australia, with the Americans hard-pressed to become the first country to win this tournament three straight times without the biggest names in the NBA.

But unlike the Filipinos, the Americans debut on Sunday against the Czech Republic.

With the likes of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis and James Harden opting not to play, the Americans are not the overwhelming picks to win the gold here, with Spain, Serbia and Greece tipped to crowd them for the title.

There will be a total of eight groups composed of four teams each, with the top two teams from each bracket advancing to the round-of-16 slated to start on Sept. 6.

The Filipinos are bracketed with the Italians, the Serbians and African champion Angola, and would need nothing less than two wins to make it past Group D play and entertain thoughts of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympics outright.

This tournament will stake a total of seven automatic berths to the Games next year, with only one direct slot reserved for the best team in Asia.

The host Chinese have an inside track on that, being in a relatively light group together with Poland, Ivory Coast and Venezuela in Group A.

In fact, an AP (The Associated Press) report that came out on Thursday listed China as the only Asian country likely to advance to the next round with a projected top two finish in Group A.

The AP report, however, singled out June Mar Fajardo as a talent to watch in Foshan, saying: “the name people will best know is naturalized Filipino and nine-year NBA veteran Andray Blatche, but the name they should know is June Mar Fajardo—a 6-foot-11 center with five MVP awards from his homeland’s top pro league.”

Gilas will play Nikola Jokic and the Serbians on Monday before winding up classification against the Angolans two days later.