Gilas Pilipinas have been rounding out their form ahead of the crucial match against Latvia in the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
In just a few days, Gilas Pilipinas will start their 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament campaign against world no. 6 Latvia.
Ahead of the big match, Gilas has been hard at work in preparations, which included two friendlies against world no. 24 Turkey and world no. 15 Poland—both of which netted positive results for the team despite the losses.
Against Turkey, the 11-man Gilas Pilipinas hung tough against a tall and hot-shooting Turkish side before dropping an 84-73 loss in their tuneup game.
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Days later, the national team went up against Poland, where they managed to keep the game close before falling short, 82-80.
Despite the losses, many fans have been impressed with the team’s performances, but coach Tim Cone is still unsure what the team will be like their match against Latvia.
“It’s been a whirlwind trip so far for us. It’s hard to get a gauge on exactly where we are and how much we need to do in the limited time that we have to do it, so I’m as curious as everybody else on where this team is at this point,” Cone told One Sports.
“We’re real positive. We felt we’ve proven that we can stay with these guys, these European teams. We played our two friendlies pretty tough,” he added.
Latvia will be without its superstar Kristaps Porzingis, who is still recovering from his left leg injury suffered during the Boston Celtics' NBA Playoff run.
Despite this, Cone anticipates a tough match against the Latvians, who will have the crowd behind them in Riga, emphasizing the need to use their bigs in the match.
“It’s going be tough in front of this big crowd here when we play Latvia, but we feel we match up to them pretty well. They’re not gonna outsize us, but they’re really good,” said Cone. “They’re really good in their execution, they’re really good in the way they move the ball, and we’re gonna have to do a lot of chasing throughout the game.”
“We’ll see if we can get the ball down to June Mar [Fajardo] and Kai [Sotto]. I think that’s gonna be our advantage against them,” he explained.
Gilas will go up against Latvia on Thursday, July 4, at 12 a.m., which will air live on One Sports, One Sports+, and Pilipinas Live.
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(With reports from Nic Earnshaw/One Sports)