The Philippine national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas will face Team Lebanon in the knockout quarterfinals of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship as the regional basketball competition set to resume on Thursday, October 1, 2015, following a one-day break.
Here’s our Match Preview of Gilas Pilipinas vs. Lebanon:
Team Lebanon is considered as one of the powerhouse team from West Asia as they ranked 34th worldwide by FIBA, just three places below the 31st ranked Philippines, which secured the top seed in Group E after defeating Japan, Iran and India.
The game between Philippine and Lebanon will be held on Thursday night at around 9:30 PM, the first time that the Filipinos face an opponent at such a late time in the day.
Lebanon enters the knockout quarterfinals round after winning over Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, and Jordan, but they lost to Qatar, South Korea and China.
The Gilas Pilipinas squad will have to be wary of naturalized guard Jay Youngblood, Canadian-Lebanese hotshot Ali Haidar, and point guard Amir Saoud. Missing in the powerhouse Lebanese squad is the long-time leader of the national team, Fadi El-Khatib.
In the Quarter Finals of the 2015 FIBA Asia, the other team who made it are defending champion Iran which is in collision course with powerhouses South Korea and China and completed by India. The Philippines is bracketed with Lebanon, Qatar and Japan.
