Head coach Tim Cone emphasized that the home-and-away game against Guam starting Friday will make or break Gilas Pilipinas’ bid for a fourth straight FIBA World Cup appearance.

Cone is treating the opening window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers as a must-win tie especially with Gilas bunched in the “Group of Death” with Australia and New Zealand.

“These two games are the most important games we play,” Cone said.

The Filipinos visit the Pacific island to play world 88th-ranked Guam on Friday before hosting their second match on 1 December at the Blue Eagle Gym inside the Ateneo de Manila University campus.

“So, these two games are the most… To me, the most important games we play in the whole qualifying that we play. I mean, we’ll work it and try to beat New Zealand, try to see if we can steal a game maybe here at home against New Zealand and Australia, and then we’ll do what we can against, I think, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan (in the second round),” the decorated mentor explained.

“Those four teams, we’ll see what we can do against those guys. But these two wins that we have are going to be carried over all the way to the end, if we can get those two wins. And if not, then that loss is going to be carried over, and we won’t make it.”

On paper, it seems that the Philippines can easily overcome the dribblers from the Pacific.

The world No. 37 Gilas has better depth and firepower compared to Guam, which is led by San Miguel Beer star Jericho Cruz along with seasoned players Tai Wesley, Jonathan Galloway and sniper Gabriel Simon.

However, Cone remained wary of the danger of being too complacent.

“You know, they’re not going to be a deep team where they’re going to play all 12 guys, unlike us where we have depth of one through 12. But the difference is it’s only a 40-minute game,” Cone added.

“You know, depth is not as crucial in a 40-minute game as it is in a 48-minute game. You can get away with playing seven, rotating seven guys and keeping seven guys fresh. That’s what they did during the Asia Cup. They basically went maybe eight deep.”

Gilas is playing with a younger core with the inclusion of 6-foot-10 former University of the Philippines star Quentin Millora-Brown, with 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto still recuperating from a knee injury.

Barangay Ginebra guard RJ Abarrientos also made the 12-man lineup along with holdovers Justin Brownlee, Japeth Aguilar, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, AJ Edu, Carl Tamayo and Chris Newsome.