Gilas Pilipinas is technically nonetheless not out of the race to advance to the second spherical of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, although they may want quite a lot of issues to interrupt proper for them.
Aside from needing an Angola loss within the 4 p.m. recreation on Tuesday to have any shot at second place in Group A, the Philippines additionally must beat a well-liked Italy crew by at the least 13 factors for them to pressure a three-way tie at win any potential tiebreak.
Milos Jovanovic, a veteran Serbian sportswriter and an in depth follower of Philippine basketball believes beating the world’s quantity 10 Italy by 13 factors is a process that is “doable” for Gilas Pilipinas.
“Is that doable? absolutely. Is it likely? Not really. But it can be done,” Jovanovic mentioned.
Read extra | FIBA World Cup Preview: A Serbian correspondent breaks down Gilas Pilipinas vs Italy
But Jovanovic added that Gilas must play an ideal recreation to drag off an upset.
He mentioned that Gilas might stand an opportunity if they might restrict Italy’s perimeter recreation.
“The thing is they need to focus, they really need to focus. And if Italy starts missing those jump shots, it’s gonna be a ball game, you know. And if Gilas jump shots start falling, of course.”
Gilas, in response to him, might replicate what the Dominican Republic did of their win in opposition to Italy the place they restricted the Azzurri squad to 7-for-29 taking pictures from the three-point line.
“[Italy] will just heavily rely on their jump shooting. They gonna try and barrage you to the top and they are like six and seven players. Once they move away from the rotation of six, seven players that are not the same quality, they will start missing.”
Jovanovic additionally believes that Gilas might have the sting contained in the paint in opposition to the Italians.
“[Gilas] need to bring some physicality to the fold. I like what June Mar Fajardo is bringing and I like when Japeth Aguilar is on the floor. Kai Sotto I think he needs to get more involved in the physical part of the play.”
“But luckily, the Italians are not exactly a good rebounding team or a physical team.”
Gilas Pilipinas and Italy will sq. off this Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
