Gilas Pilipinas plans beating Iran in FIBA Asia, eyes Olympic slot

MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin has been thinking of ways to beat Iran in the FIBA Asia Championships, with the goal to snatch the lone slot for the Olympic Games.

With a 75-64 defeat from Iran at the previously concluded William Jones Cup, the national team would have to revisit the game and use it as a ‘benchmark ‘ while competing for the MVP Cup and preparing for FIBA Asia.

“That game will feature a lot in our week of preparations… Their defense is so tough. We had trouble scoring with what we were running and how we were running it,” Baldwin said in a Spin.ph report.

The national coach admitted that his players had difficulty going past Iran’s 7-2 Hamed Haddadi, guard Mahdi Kamrani and top gunner Samad Bahrani, who made a strong defense.

Gilas now has to strengthen its offensive sets.

“There were lessons in that game and we will use that game as a kind of a benchmark and will use some of the tactics that we need to use against Iran during the week of preparations,” Baldwin said.