After the disheartening, 62-108, loss at the hands of Team Italy, Team Pilipinas's FIBA World Cup journey doesn't look that promising.
Considering that we're going up against, Team Serbia, one of the favorites to become the FIBA World Champions, Team Pilipinas really have to fix all the problems they had against Team Italy if they don't want their FIBA World Cup dreams to end on such a humiliating note.
One of the main reasons why we did so horribly against Italy was because the three-point shots that we were heavily relying on to close the gaps weren't connecting. Only three of our 27 attempts from beyond-the-arc hit the mark.
The turnovers in the first few moments of the game also really stunted any momentum Team Pilipinas could have used. There was still some life in CJ Perez during the latter half of the game but that was too little, too late to bring back the game for Team Pilipinas.
Now, looking forward, Team Pilipinas has to be prepared for the overwhelming talent Serbia can utilize. The fact that they can field an all-NBA lineup, if they choose to, scares us.
Team Pilipinas will have to look out for Serbia's "Ic's" (Jokic, Bogdanovic, Marjanovic) that have shown very decent performances in the NBA.
Again, we have to make those three-pointers to even have the tiniest chance against Serbia. We're also expecting even heavier pressure inside from the sheer size of their players and this will make it difficult for Andray Blatche to muscle his way in and score.
Team Pilipinas will really have to show #puso they're so famous for going against this intimidating matchup we so neatly set in this layout for you to easily be able to digest: