After brutal loss to Italy, Gilas’ Fiba World Cup campaign gets tougher vs Serbia

Photo from Fiba.com

FOSHAN, China—Rather than sulk and pity itself from a man-sized beating taken just two nights ago, Yeng Guiao and his Gilas Pilipinas crew want to grab the bull by the horns going forward—no matter how bleak the future looks—in their Fiba World Cup campaign.

“We look forward to playing Serbia,” Guiao said on the eve of their clash with the fourth-ranked team in the world led by the talented Nikola Jokic. “We tried to be positive, be of encouragement to each other. We cannot allow ourselves to be defined by just one bad game.”

That game, a 108-62 loss at the hands of Italy in the inaugurals on Saturday, was so bad that this intrepid batch of Filipinos looked like they didn’t belong playing in such a grandiose stage.

“There’s still games left, we need to pick up the pieces and put everything together to play a better game against Serbia,” Guiao went on.

Ever since returning to this tournament five years ago in Seville, Spain, the Filipinos were never manhandled the way they were by the Italians.

And it was a beating that was felt all the way back home, with the basketball-crazy Filipinos hoping for the Philippines to at least make it out of Group D play by winning at least two games.

That 46-point blowout put a serious dent on the Filipinos’ chances of marching on, with the Serbs, whom they tangle with at 7:30 p.m. at Foshan International Sports and Cultural Arena here Monday, listed as the team most likely to unseat the United States and deny the Americans an unprecedented third straight title.

“Against Serbia, we just want to play with our usual heart,” Guiao said. “We were shell-shocked in our first game. The level of game (of the Italians) was very high, and if you can’t keep up with that, you’re going to lag behind.”

“Especially against Serbia, that’s going to be the case,” he said.

Serbia served notice of its readiness and capability it is to win it all here, destroying Angola also by 46 points in the very first game Saturday, even with Jokic seemingly taking it easy and reserving his best for the bigger games ahead.

Guiao knows that he’ll see basically the same type of opponent in the Serbs—only better than the Italians, in all likelihood—after Serbia shot 69% from three-point land against the Angolans.

“That’s a big worry,” he said of Serbia’s three-point shooting. “Their bigs also have the ability to shoot from anywhere on the floor. We had that problem with Italy, so that’s basically the same problem we’ll have against Serbia.

“Maybe worse,” he admitted.

Still, Guiao, despite knowing that they are about to run into a better, much-motivated team in the Serbs Monday night, and would want this game, not the one against the Italians, to define their campaign here—win or lose.

“The consolation for us Filipino basketball fans is to just see our team fight and compete,” Guiao said. “That’s what we’ll try to do against Serbia.”

Gilas will have its hands full, definitely. But going out wouldn’t be bad at all, most especially if you know you gave it your all.

“If we’re going to lose, we just have to play decent basketball,” Guiao said. “We just have to keep fighting it out.”