Gilas faces tough challenge in Jordan, RHJ

HANGZHOU – Gilas Pilipinas returns to the floor today to face Jordan, a team that poses a clear and present danger for the Filipinos as they shoot for an outright quarterfinals berth in men’s basketball of the 19th Asian Games here.

After storming past Bahrain and squeezing through Thailand, Gilas takes on its toughest challenge in Group C of the preliminaries. The highly anticipated game is set at 5:30 p.m. at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium.

No one is expecting a picnic.

“They’re gonna be tough,” said Gilas coach Tim Cone, repeating the words he had said even before the squad left Manila for Hangzhou via Hong Kong to try and win an Asian Games medal – of any color.

In 2018 in Jakarta, the Philippines failed to make the semis and finished fifth. Its last medal, a bronze, came in the 1998 edition, with a team coached by Cone.

Jordan will rely heavily on former PBA Best Import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a left-handed NBA veteran who is expected to give Gilas a headache if he plays true to form.

A few days ago, Jordan sent a message across in the form of a huge 97-63 victory over Thailand, which in turn trailed by only five points in the final six minutes against Gilas before taking an 87-72 setback.

Cone said it’s a sign that Jordan is here to win games.

“What can you say? They blew this team (Thais) out by 37 (actually 34) points, and we only beat them by what, 15 or whatever? So if you look at it that way, we don’t have much of a chance,” said Cone.

However, the American coach with the most titles in the PBA would rather downplay his team’s chances than raise the expectations.

“But I think (if) you walk into our locker room when you talk to everyone of those guys, they think we can beat Jordan. We’re gonna try to put on a big performance together and go out and play Jordan,” he said.

The Philippines and Jordan sport identical 2-0 records and the winner of today’s game will move on to the Last 8 with no complications at all.

On the other hand, the loser would have to use the backdoor in order to advance to the knockout stage.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial kept his cards close to his chest heading to the game against Jordan, a recent visitor in