AFTER toughening up in Europe, the Gilas Pilipinas national team training pool is now training its sights in another exhibition series, this time in China armed with the lessons they gained in Estonia and Lithuania.
National coach Chot Reyes said his charges are bracing for tune-up games against their Chinese counterparts for the FIBA World Cup.
“I think that’s the most important thing as we continue to grow from the lessons that we learned here (Europe),” Reyes said.
“To improve, and then prepare for tough games in our China series in which we are going to play a full national team again,” he added.
The Filipino cagers lost their first two tune-up games against Estonia and Finland.
Gilas traveled to Kaunas, where it won back-to-back matches against the Ukraine Under-20 squad and fell to a Lithuanian selection team.
What gnaws at Reyes are injuries to key players Scottie Thompson (fractured shooting hand) and Dwight Ramos (knee).
Reyes will have to make crucial line-up decisions in their build-up for the World Cup when they return to Manila.
“We have to take a look and get the official medical prognosis of Scottie’s injury, get an MRI on Dwight’s knee,” Reyes said.
“These are very important decisions that we will have to make in Manila. They have to rest and then, we have to evaluate and sit down with the coaching staff.”
Gilas is bracketed with Italy, Dominican Republic, and Angola in Group A of the blue-ribbon world cage spectacle the country is co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10.
The Philippine five needs to finish at least in the top two at the end of the group stage to advance to the next round and hopefully boost their bid of becoming the best placed Asian squad to directly qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
