The Philippine national men’s basketball team just needs one more win to clinch the gold medal in the 2017 SEABA Championship.
Standing in Gilas Pilipinas’ way is Indonesia which the Filipinos will face in the final day of the tournament on Thursday.
Like Gilas Pilipinas, Indonesia is unbeaten in five games. But the Filipinos are still coming in as the heavy favorites in the matchup.
Still, Gilas Pilipinas is not taking its opponent lightly.
“It’s a competition. The essence of sports is you can never be sure,” Reyes told sportswriters during the post-game interview. “We keep harping on the fact that we cannot take anything for granted. We’d like to think that everything we had done is to get us ready for tomorrow.”
“We knew right from the start Indonesia would be the toughest opponent and we found ourselves here. They’re getting ready as well.”
Against the Philippines, Indonesia is parading naturalized player Jamarr Johnson and US-born Arki Wisnu who just played their first game on Wednesday due to eligibility issues.
Johnson scored 17 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block in Indonesia’s 123-50 win over Myanmar. Wisnu meanwhile had seven points and two assists.
“They have a couple of guys who are very, very fresh,” added Reyes. “That’s why we made it a point to rest Andray (Blatche) and make him fresh as well.”
Matthew Wright expects Gilas Pilipinas to engage in a “dogfight” against Indonesia.
“Yes, they’ve improved. They’ve shooters and we’ve watched the films. It’s not going to be a walk in the park tomorrow, but they have to guard us, too,” Wright told sportswriters.
“It’s gonna be a dogfight. I know Jamarr Johnson is getting ready to play. It’s going to be his second game so definitely he wants to beat us with his motor. But I feel we were getting our strides lately. Everybody has confidence in their game.”