GILAS Pilipinas kicks off its campaign for a back-to-back men’s basketball gold medal in the Asian Games when it battles Bahrain on Friday in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
The Philippines clashes with Bahrain beginning at 12 noon, Manila time.
Gilas Pilipinas will still be coached by Tim Cone but its composition for the 20th Asian Games is practically a new squad.
Naturalized player Justin Brownlee, who led the team to the championship in the 19th Asian Games, will not be playing in Japan as he continues to recover from multiple injuries to leg, knee and hamstring.
The all-PBA national squad has been under scrutiny by Filipino fans, who wonder if this latest iteration of the Gilas Pilipinas team can give the country another men’s basketball crown.
For one, the team is coming off back-to-back lopsided beatings from the Korean national squad last weekend in their two-game exhibition in Suwon, South Korea.
NLEX high-scoring guard Robert Bolick is expected to take the lead for Gilas Pilipinas along with RJ Abarrientos, Justin Arana and Justine Baltazar, the three holdovers from the Philippine team that scored a two-game sweep of its home games in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers against Jordan and Iran recently.
In the Asian Games, the Philippine team will try to bank on its quickness, while hoping that first-time national players like Adrian Nocum, Sedrick Barefield and Zavier Lucero could contribute right away.
Gilas Pilipinas will be facing a Bahrain five whose confidence is at a high following its 4-0 start in the recent FIBA Asia Cup 2029 pre-qualifiers opening round.
The Bahrainis will be reinforced by four naturalized players led by seven-foot JaKarr Sampson, Uros Ilic, a 6-10 big man, who hails from Serbia and Elijah Thomas, a 6-9 forward who played for Clemson and Texas A&M in college and recently played professionally for Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.
Veteran Gilas Pilipinas campaigner Calvin Oftana has been tapped to fill in the 12th spot in lieu of Brownlee, giving the Philippine team an added experience and outside shooting.
The other members of the Philippine team are Jerrick Ahanmisi, Don Trollano, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Brandon Bates.
The Philippines battles Group C member Kazakhstan on Saturday and China on Monday.
