Gilas shifts focus to next assignment as World Cup qualifiers continue in August

After an early exit from the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup, Gilas Pilipinas will now shift its focus to the second round of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, which will kick off this August.

The Filipinos, who are currently at fourth place in Group E, will have two games in the first window, taking on Lebanon on August 25 and Saudi Arabia on August 29.

Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said they have already laid out their next plan that will include the next windows all the way to the World Cup in 2023, which will be co-hosted by the Philippines alongside Japan and Indonesia.

"First of all, we will give these guys a rest and time to recover but we already have a plan in place for the next window, I'm afraid I can't divulge it here but we've put up the plan together all the way to August next year," he said.

"Like I said, we're operating under difficult circumstances and a lot of restrictions but we're making do with what we have and in the end, that's all we can do."

Gilas veteran Kiefer Ravena said they learned hard lessons from the Asia Cup, where they lost to Japan to formally crash out of the tournament and finish outside the Top 8 for the first time since 2007.

"Again this is I think the second game in a row where practically the game was lost in the first quarter. And something that's a little bit positive is I think we were able to learn from our mistakes during the New Zealand game," Ravena said.

"Now we won the rebounding department but then again, having 17 turnovers and too much points off turnovers, basically Japan scored on every turnover that we had. It was a big deficit for us but again learning [our] lesson, we move forward from this."

—JMB, GMA News