Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone admitted being disappointed with the way the team played in an 89-85 setback against Bahrain on Friday to open the country’s title-retention bid in the 20th Asian Games men’s basketball in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
“We’re very disappointed in the way we played. We expect a lot more from ourselves,” Cone said in the post-game interview posted at One Sports’ website.
The Philippine team dominated the boards, 50-36, but Gilas Pilipinas failed to contain two of Bahrain’s four naturalized players in JaKarr Sampson and Elijah Thomas.
The seven-foot Sampson had a solid all-around effort of 24 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists, while the 6-foot-9 Thomas chipped in 20 points.
“Usually, when you look at those stats alone, you would think that we would have controlled the game, but we had a hard time dealing with their size,” said Cone, pointing to Sampson and Thomas.
While the result was disappointing considering the way Gilas Pilipinas played on Friday, Cone said they will have to move forward and regroup since the Philippines will have Kazakhstan as its next opponent on Saturday.
“At some point, you can be upset for long enough, but you have to move on,” said the Gilas Pilipinas mentor, who is parading practically a new national team lineup composed of PBA stars minus naturalized player Justin Brownlee.
The Kazakhs, like the Filipinos, lost their opening game earlier against China, 99-61.
Cone’s trusted guard RJ Abarrientos, one of just three holdovers from the Gilas Pilipinas team that beat Jordan and Iran in the recent FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers fourth window, only had four points and four assists in over 18 minutes of play.
Robert Bolick, meanwhile, went scoreless in 13 minutes of action.
The two guards are expected to bounce back strong against Kazakhstan.
