The Gilas Pilipinas will clash with Group B team, Japan in the second round of the FIBA Asia Championship tonight, August 5, 2013. The Gilas made it to the second round after their successful second place finish in Group A, behind group leader Chinese Taipei.
Here’s our scouting report for the Japanese Men’s basketball squad:
Japanese star forward Kosuke Takeuchi struggled during the first round but still managed to score double double against Qatar with 10 points and 10 rebounds. During Japan’s second game he scored 12 points and 7 rebounds against Hong Kong although playing with just 20 minutes on the floor.
JR Sakuragi, the naturalized center of Japan posted 13 points and 8 rebounds during their first game while on his second game he scored 10 points and 12 rebounds. The MOA crowd also awaits the possible match up between Japan’s Sakuragi and our very own Filipino Sakuragi Marc Pingris.
In the outside shooting category, the Gilas Pilipinas should take a look with Japanese shooting guard Kosuke Kanamaru, the one who knocked down a four-point play during his first shoot of the tournament. He scored 27 points on Japan’s opening day loss to Qatar. During the second game of Japan, Kanamaru failed to duplicate his performance but Japan’s reserve guard Naoto Tsuji who scored 12 points in the first quarter of Japan’s rout of Hong Kong.
The Japanese national team have some problems with their perimeter defensed and the Philippines should capitalize this kind of advantage. During Japan’s game against Qatar, they were able to gave up 10 three pointers while against Hong Kong they gave up eight shots from beyond the arc in the first half alone.
