Gilas target: Conquer Senegal, Puerto Rico

MANILA, Philippines — Not that Chot Reyes and his gritty Gilas Pilipinas gang won’t be giving their all against the rest of their group mates in the 2014 Fiba World Cup, but the Filipinos will be concentrating more on beating Senegal and Puerto Rico to reach the second round.

Senegal, the 41st-ranked team in the world, is a realistic target for the Filipinos, who will go into the August joust in Spain hoping to be more competitive with the possible addition of either JaVale McGee or Andray Blatche, both NBA veterans, as their new naturalized player.

“Senegal is beatable, but not obviously,” Reyes told the Inquirer in a text message Monday.

“Next is Puerto Rico, except for the fact that they have four or five current or former NBA players.”

Ginobili, Scola banner Argentina

World No. 3 and former Olympic gold-medal winner Argentina, 15th-ranked Croatia and wild card Greece are the other PH rivals in Group B.

Argentina, which is expected to be bannered again by San Antonio Spurs star Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola, ruled the Fiba Americas Championship last year.

The Group B games are scheduled in Sevilla with the top four teams advancing to the next stage along with the qualifiers from Group A where powerhouse the United States and LeBron James belong.

The Senegalese finished third in the Fiba Africa Championship last August behind Ivory Coast and Egypt, losing to the Egyptians by just a point to miss the title game.

Senegal has an NBA veteran in the 7-foot Hamady N’Diaye. The team also boasts of Adama “Louis” Adams, who is a rising star for South Carolina State, an NCAA Division I school.

Puerto Rico— which owns just the third victory by any country over the United States in the Olympics, one that was most lopsided to boot—has former NBA player and Petron Blaze import Renaldo Balkman as its stalwart.

Carlos Arroyo, who debuted for Puerto Rico in 2004, the year the country scored a 92-73 whipping of the Americans in Athens, JJ (Jose) Barea and Balkman are the other notable players in the lineup with long NBA experiences.

McGee or Blatche for Gilas

The Philippines is hoping to naturalize either Denver’s McGee or New Jersey’s Blatche before the June 30 deadline and give the country a bigger, more agile center for the World Cup.

Marcus Douthit, a heady 6-foot-10 center, helped the Filipinos get back to the world stage but, at 33, is injury-prone of late.

He missed the gold-medal match against Iran in the Fiba Asia Championship last August in Manila.

The Filipinos will also use the World Cup as their best possible preparation for the Asian Games scheduled in Inchon, South Korea, less than two weeks later.