THE hometown crowd and a monster game from do-it-all guard Jordan Clarkson.
These two critical factors, preeminent ESPN basketball writer Brian Windhorst believes, can carry Gilas Pilipinas past fancied Dominican Republic today when they tangle in their opening Group A game in the FIBA World Cup before an anticipated packed Philippine Sports Arena in Bulacan.
“Now I hear that game is going to be played in front of some 55,000 people. In an environment like that, anything is possible, especially in a one-off situation,” Windhorst, who has covered two World Cups and the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, said.
Collectively, he added, if the Filipino basketeers “ride the wave of the fans on Friday and they win that game, they have a great chance. If they lose that game, it is going to be a big uphill battle.”
Of the Utah Jazz star, he said: “They have a player in Jordan Clarkson, who is skilled enough to win the game by himself. You could never say that he can carry a team in five games. But he can win one game (for them).
“If you say he is going to score 37 points and carry the Filipinos in that game, I do think it’s possible.”
At the same time, however, Windhorst acknowledged that the hosts were up against formidable rivals, ranked 23rd in the world, led by mobile 7-foot behemoth Karl Anthony Towns.
“The Philippines will go into that game as an underdog because of Karl Towns,” the veteran sports scribe said of the Minnesota Timberwolves star, who had 20 points, six rebounds, and two assists in the Dominican Republic’s 94-88 drubbing of Canada in their last tune-up match in Grenada, Spain.
Because of the huge presence of Towns on the Dominican side, “some people think they can win the silver, even gold,” said Windhorst, “so they enter the match as the favorites.”
Despite the odds, the writer popularly known as Windy, whose reader-friendly basketball pieces are known for their incisive and in-depth analysis, urged Gilas coach Chot Reyes to go all in and pull out all stops against their initial rivals.
“I think that selecting that game (to go all out) is beneficial. I think they (the Filipinos) have a good chance. The Dominican game is the most important game. That’s the swing game,” Windhorst emphasized.
Hurdling the Town-led Dominicans would ease the pressure a bit for Reyes’ charges when they face Angola on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum before wrapping up their group stint against Italy on Aug. 29 at the same arena.
The top two squads after the round will advance to the next stage, carrying over their win-loss records from the preliminaries.
Although winning the championship is farfetched, Gilas is hoping to emerge as the best squad from Asia and qualify for the Paris Olympic Games and mark a comeback for the country since the last national quintet saw action in the 1972 Munich Olympics.
