Day 1, Round 1 - Group B: Philippines - Palestine

[judasmartel]

After an impressive 2nd place finish at the WABA Championship this year, Palestine, led by Sani Sakakini, joins Iran and Lebanon as the West Asian representatives for the 2015 FIBA Asia championships in Changsha, China. This year marks their first ever FIBA Asia appearance.

The Philippines got Andray Blatche back on the team after missing him during the William Jones Cup three weeks earlier. They still won the silver medal without him, and swept a pocket tournament held in Manila by defeating a local ball club, the Wellington Saints, and the Chinese Taipei NT en route to a 3-0 record and the gold medal.

With only 4 holdovers from the Philippine team that shocked the basketball world last year by playing competitively against four of the top 20 teams in the world, a new set of players are trying bring out a different dimension to Philippine basketball, from the fast, lights-out WC team to a longer (albeit shorter) and more defensive team this year.

[arianinos]

Can Palestine keep the difference below 35 points ? Can they do it ? Their team is weak but i see in the other topic that noone is considering such a big difference. Its a betting question

[lebanese NT]

After an impressive 2nd place finish at the WABA Championship this year, Palestine, led by Sani Sakakini, joins Iran and Lebanon as the West Asian representatives for the 2015 FIBA Asia championships in Changsha, China. This year marks their first ever FIBA Asia appearance.

The Philippines got Andray Blatche back on the team after missing him during the William Jones Cup three weeks earlier. They still won the silver medal without him, and swept a pocket tournament held in Manila by defeating a local ball club, the Wellington Saints, and the Chinese Taipei NT en route to a 3-0 record and the gold medal.


With only 4 holdovers from the Philippine team that shocked the basketball world last year by playing competitively against four of the top 20 teams in the world, a new set of players are trying bring out a different dimension to Philippine basketball, from the fast, lights-out WC team to a longer (albeit shorter) and more defensive team this year.

They finished 3rd and not 2nd in waba. Just to clarify.

[budz17]

Can Palestine keep the difference below 35 points ? Can they do it ? Their team is weak but i see in the other topic that noone is considering such a big difference. Its a betting question

Gilas is treating the first round as build up for the tournament as we had a relatively short preparation and the unit is not known to be an offensive juggernaut. The 35 point margin is not realistic given the circumstances and the team will not be looking to pad the lead but instead to work on their game and get better.

[JGX]

Didn't some of these Palestine guys play for Jordan in the past?

[FILIPINOMAZTER]

Didn't some of these Palestine guys play for Jordan in the past?

Yep, some of their players used to have jordanian passport since palestine is not considered a nation in the past

[reamily]

intal sa elite teams di pwede yun..

Intal being stiff can be deadly..

[tmlouk]

look , how embarrassing the Philipines are.... such a bad Performance against such a weak Team

[tmlouk]

Phillipies are such a trash Team... they should ask for the next flight back home....

[JGX]

Torched by a dude who stopped playing pro basketball like five years ago...

tmlouk still dominating the worst poster rankings

[lebanese NT]

1st big upset of the tournament. Go palestine!

[CKR13]

Congrats to Palestine!

[ctongco]

Great inspired game by Palestine. Tentative game from the Philippines.

[FILIPINOMAZTER]

Amazing game for palestine, after we belittled their team and thinking how we can easily beat them by 20-40 pts

[Khalid80]

Wow! What an upset! Great game by Palestine! Congrats to them for this huge win!