It’s been a whirlwind first week of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championships. There have been some surprises including Palestine’s surprising performance in their first Asia Championship, the Philippines’ 14-point win over Iran (discuss) and India’s appearance in the quarterfinals (and the absence of Jordan) but for the most part, the field is as expected — an undefeated China team, powerhouse Iran, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
One of those surprises; Iran’s unexpected loss to the Philippines shook up the brackets.
Iran vs. Korea Iran now has to face a tough Korean squad (watch now) in the quarterfinals. The way Iran has been playing prior to their loss, you can expect Team Melli to come out aggressive and swinging. That should be a scary prospect for any team.
However, Korea isn’t easy to shake and won’t be an easy win. Team Korea is the most-experienced and country with the most medals FIBA Asia Championships history. One of these teams will have to settle for something out of the top four, a placement neither wants or is used to. There is no moral victory between Iran vs. Korea. The game is scheduled for 14h30 local time.
Philippines vs. Lebanon Although Lebanon (3-3) hasn’t performed consistently, their a team to be reckoned with. And though the Philippines have a very respectable 5-1 record going into the round, they lack consistency; this is a team that lost to Palestine and won by double-digits over Iran.
Throw the records out here and seedings (#1 vs. #4), this has the potential be an evenly-matched game between Lebanon and Gilas (watch live). The Philippines-Lebanon game will start at 21:30.
Japan vs. Qatar In the other two quarterfinal games, you have Japan, the #2 seed vs. the #3 seed in Qatar starting at 16h45 local time (watch).
China vs. India The other side of the bracket features a 6-0 China team that is looking to continue their winning ways against India (watch live at 19h30).
This match has particular significance because China wants to avenge a 65-58 shocking loss to India from last year’s Asia Cup match. In addition, China is the hosts. All signs point to China to take this game.
All quarterfinal games are scheduled for Thursday October 1st local time. The tournament’s grueling back-to-back-to-back schedule continues with the semi-finals on Friday then the FIBA Asia Championship finals on Saturday, October 3rd.
You can follow along with the game action and discuss all the plays pre- and post-game with thousands of fans in Interbasket’s FIBA Asia Championships forum.