China-bound Filipino cagers face last test

Gilas Pilipinas battles Korean club Changwon LG Sakers as its final test before heading for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Sunday.

Gilas head coach Tim Cone encourages fans to watch their friendly match set at 4 p.m. at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City so they can assess their readiness in the prestigious quadrennial tourney that starts on Tuesday at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Stadium.

The preparation of Gilas for the Asian Games has been rocky.

After a fruitless stint in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, head coach Chot Reyes stepped down while players like Jordan Clarkson, Kai Sotto, AJ Edu, Dwight Ramos and Rhenz Abando returned to their respective professional teams.

With that, Gilas enlisted the services of Calvin Abueva and Jason Perkins to replace injured Jamie Malonzo and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser while Terrence Romeo and Mo Tautuaa were added to beef up the roster.

But the Philippine Olympic Committee got word that the inclusion of the four new players, who were not on the list of players submitted by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, was done past the deadline for Entry by Names on 25 July.

With that, the SBP had to enlist four new players in Kevin Alas, Chris Ross, CJ Perez and Arvin Tolentino while activating Marcio Lassiter as replacement for injured Roger Pogoy.

Alas, Ross, Perez, Tolentino and Lassiter will see action in their friendly match.

From having a big lineup, Gilas suddenly turned into a guard-oriented squad and Cone now has to figure out how he will integrate his new players into his Read and React Triangle Offense.

Cone said facing Changwon LG Sakers will give him a chance to study the combinations while getting a good grasp of Korean basketball.

"It's not the national team, but at least it will give us a feel of the Korean brand of basketball and we know that these players have improved a lot as we've seen through the years with the Korean Basketball League," Cone said.

"They're now used to playing against bigger, stronger players and were able to expose Western basketball when they brought in American imports, and also have an idea on how their competing Asian rivals play when they started opening the doors to Asian countries, including the Philippines."