Cone wants better long-range defense

Twenty-five three-pointers given.

Gilas Pilipinas’ two gut-wrenching losses in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup saw the opposition torch the Filipinos from beyond the arc in stunning precision.

Chinese Taipei and New Zealand were both lights out from the outside and torched Gilas to submission in their respective meetings in the continental hoops contest being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Two days after Taiwanese Chen Ying-Chung punished Gilas with six triples with just two missed attempts, it was Jordan Ngatai’s turn to burn the Nationals with a perfect 5-for-5 treys in the Tall Black’s 94-86 victory early Friday (Manila time) at the King Abdullah Sports City.

All Gilas head coach Tim Cone could do was shake his head while looking at the opposition’s three-point stats against his team.

“I mean, it just seems to be that that’s the way the game has been going for us lately,” Cone said.

The Kiwis shot 13-of-26 treys against Gilas while Chinese Taipei went 12-of-27 from the rainbow territory.

That’s a mind-boggling 50 and 44 percent three-point shooting efficiency.

“That’s something we’ve got to try to solve and get better at going into our next game and through the tournament,” Cone said.

Gilas’ coaching staff will surely be busy scouting and addressing their defensive hole heading into a do-or-die game against fellow winless Iraq today.

“Well, we just have to identify shooters a little better,” Cone added.

Luckily, the Iraqis are not really doing well from the outside.

Iraq had a 12-of-27 three-point clip against New Zealand but dropped to 3-of-21 against Chinese Taipei.

Aside from defending from long-range bombs, Cone hopes Gilas will play better to gain a spot in the next round.

“Hopefully, we can turn that around and we have to. And again, it’s all going to be mental. Getting loose balls, getting loose rebounds, and not allowing the extra possessions to get three-point shots,” he said.