‘Maybe worse,’ says Guiao as Gilas looks forward to Serbia match

FOSHAN, China—Rather than sulk after 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.

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.

Gilas Pilipinas needs two wins to make it out of Group D.

“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 Italy] was very high, and if you can’t keep up with that, you’re going to lag—especially against Serbia, that’s going to be the case.”

Serbia destroyed 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 feels Serbia will flaunt a similar game as Italy—only better. The Serbians shot 69 percent from three-point land against Angola.

“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 added.

Guiao hopes it is the game against Serbia, not Italy, that will define the Filipinos’ campaign here—win or lose.

“The consolation for us Filipino basketball fans is to just see our team fight and compete,” Guiao said, knowing going out wouldn’t be that bad as long as the team battles.

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