'We haven't seen our best team yet,' says Cone after historic Gilas Pilipinas upset win vs New Zealand

For the first time in FIBA history, Gilas Pilipinas defeated New Zealand, 93-89, on Thursday in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers and for head coach Tim Cone, the best is yet to come for the nationals.

The win came just months after the nationals' dream run in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament where they defeated Latvia, then ranked 6th, and now against the world no. 22 Kiwis. All of these wins came as Tim Cone held the national team since the start of the year.

"That's what we're here for right? We try to win these kinds of games," Cone said on Thursday after the historic win.

"The OQT was fantastic. I thought we would've done a lot better if this guy (Kai Sotto) hadn't gotten hurt. That kind of put us behind the 8-ball."

Cone, however, credited his wards for their performances.

"You could see the effect that Kai has on the game and you could also see the effect that Scottie [Thompson] has on the game. We didn't have Scottie in the OQT as well. We played Brazil, the no. 12 team in the world, without Kai, without Scottie, without AJ Edu who will eventually impact us because of his defensive skills, [and will] really complement Kai in some of the things he does and Jamie Malonzo as a stopper. You put Jamie Malonzo a six-seven, six-six quick guy on Corey Webster, he's gonna give Corey Webster all kinds of problem because he has that speed and quickness and length to get them in trouble," added Cone.

"We haven't seen our best team yet and yet we've been able to beat [the] no. 6 and no. 22 [teams] so we're still trying to see exactly where we can go and how far we can go," said the Gilas head coach, adding that the players are also making sacrifices for their national team duty.

"They're coming here basically on, it's a small little portion of the salaries they make with their home teams. They're coming in here with their hearts more than their pockets. They're here, they're giving it their all, they're going to two-a-day practices, poor guy (Kai) had to two-a-day practices coming off a concussion and still battle through it all and everybody else is doing the same. My hat is really off to the players and what they're doing to get to this level and to get to this point. I think we should be proud of them."

Gilas will next face Hong Kong on Saturday, still at the Mall of Asia Arena.

—GMA Integrated News