The Philippine national men’s basketball team will have to go into the title match of the FIBA Asia Championship against powerhouse Iran without top center Marcus Douthit.
That odds are stacked against Gilas Pilipinas in the game against Iran on Sunday. Behind former NBA center Hamed Haddadi, the two-time Asian champions have not lost by less than double-digits in the whole tournament.
But that doesn’t mean the Filipinos will just roll over.
“I wanted to have a quick huddle with the players [after winning over South Korea]. I told them congratulations. We have achieved our objective, now our dream is at hand,” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes.
“I don’t know if there were people here in one my earlier interviews, I said, our objective was to win a medal but our dream was to win it all. So we have achieved our objective, now the dream is at hand. So we’re going to go all out. Again, they have to carry us out of that court tomorrow.”
Douthit asked to be subbed out in the second quarter against South Korea after suffering an injury and did not return to the match.
“It’s really bad. He couldn’t even walk out with us. It got hit in the game versus Qatar, and then today, in that drive, it got hit in the exact same spot. So it’s very swollen, it’s black and blue,” said Reyes.
The Gilas coach admitted the team still needs to figure out how to match up with Iran’s 7-foot-2 behemoth, who has been lording it over the competition.
“We really don’t know how it’s gonna work out. But you know, we have June Mar Fajardo. So we’ll see.”
Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/even-without-marcus-douthit-gilas-pilipinas-vows-to-go-all-out-in-title-match-against-iran
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