Focus is on Italy as Gilas Pilipinas in final preparations for FIBA World Cup

Gilas Pilipinas is in its final preparations for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.

Our national squad buckled down to work hours after arriving in Foshan as the team held a practice session at the Foshan International Sports and Cultural Center on Thursday night.

Gilas then made another round of practice at the same venue to get more acclimatize with the court before their match against Italy.

The match against Italy is being considered as the most crucial match for Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA World Cup by the coaching staff.

“Our focus, resources, time, scouting, we focus it on the team where we have a greater percentage of winning. Kasi kahit matalo tayo sa Serbia, kung manalo tayo sa Italy, at tinalo natin ang Angola, okay tayo,” said Guiao.

Two NBA players will suit up for Italy with Danilo Gallinari of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs part of the roster. Also part of the team is Luigi Datome, a player in the Euroleague.

“We like our chances better when Gallinari and Datome were not playing. Now we know they are playing. Lumalim yung bench nila. They got deeper. They got deeper with quality players. Even if we are gaining some momentum in our execution, Italy still ha more size, they still have more talent. We just hope that we perform close to our best,” said Guiao.

PHOTO: ONE SPORTS