Gilas Pilipinas is set for an early collision with China when it competes in the men’s basketball tournament of the 20th Asian Games starting 11 September in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

In the groupings released by the Asian Games Organizing Committee on Friday, the Filipinos landed in the same group with Bahrain, Kazakhstan and China.

Host Japan is in Group A along with South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia while Group B has contenders Iran and Jordan together with Chinese Taipei and Qatar.

Gilas will open its campaign against Bahrain on 11 Septemberbefore taking on Kazakhstan the following day and powerhouse China on the final day of the group stage on 14 September.

Bad blood is expected to boil between the Filipinos and the Chinese.

Aside from the possible implication of the match in the knockout stages, China is tipped to march to war zone hungry for redemption after suffering an emotional 76-77 defeat at the hands of the Philippines in the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023.

Naturalized player Justin Brownlee is again expected to be a marked man as he torched the Chinese defense with 17 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter to complete their fight back from a huge first-half deficit en route to pulling off the win that sent the Filipinos to the gold medal against Jordan.

Brownlee is set to make an Asian Games return as he was part of the long list submitted by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to the organizers together with fellow naturalized players Bennie Boatwright and Ange Kouame as well as Philippine Basketball Association stars CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, RJ Abarrientos, Troy Rosario, Calvin Oftana, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Justine Baltazar and Chris Newsome.

Also part of the pool are Jamie Malonzo, Jerrick Ahanmisi, Don Trollano, Jordan Heading, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, Justin Arana, Adrian Nocum, Caelan Tiongson, Brandon Bates, Sedrick Barefield, Robert Bolick, Zavier Lucero and Jason Perkins while mainstays Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu have already begged off due to their commitments with their Japanese clubs.