Gilas Pilipinas hurtles toward what was initially a nonbearing game whose only value was to afford the Nationals some sort of bragging rights and serve a tuneup ahead of the Fiba Asia Cup’s flagship event in Saudi Arabia in six months.

But the return match against New Zealand this Sunday in Auckland has become a high-stakes clash as the two nations break their 4-1 tie for the Group B lead, which also ultimately awards the winner a favorable draw in the continental meet in Jeddah this August.

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The Filipinos missed cornerstone Kai Sotto in the 91-84 shock loss to Chinese Taipei at Taipei Heping Stadium, as Gilas struggled to find another reliable source of production outside naturalized ace Justin Brownlee and another young pillar in Dwight Ramos.

Brownlee had 39 points, six rebounds and eight assists, while Ramos chipped in 15 points and five rebounds. AJ Edu delivered 10 points in his first game back from a knee issue, but the glut of those buckets came a little too late for the Philippines, who had to get out of a 13-point rut before making things competitive in the crunch.

Telling absence

Scottie Thompson, who was sensational against New Zealand back in November, finished with just four points after going 1-for-8 from the field. CJ Perez and Calvin Oftana, both bonafide scorers in the PBA, fired blanks in the loss. Carl Tamayo—touted to be one of the big contributors in this window for his recent prolific outing in South Korea—was just as forgettable.

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The 7-foot-3 Sotto was easily one of the reasons why Gilas was overwhelmingly the most efficient squad in the tournament going into Thursday’s game, as his command of the defense opens up scoring opportunities not only for himself but also for his teammates.

And his absence was telling, something which the Tall Blacks will try to exploit when the two sides go at it again on Sunday morning (Manila time) at Spark Arena.

The hosts, retooled and perhaps much more vengeful than the Chinese, are coming off a 41-point whipping of Hong Kong, with their defense as their foremost weapon.

“Looking at the stats, we were able to force 24 turnovers, I think, and we’re really capitalizing on that. And basically that’s where really the game was won for us,” said New Zealand coach Judd Flavell. “We’re gonna take our learnings with us for the game against the Philippines in a couple of days’ time.

“We got a lot to build. This is my second campaign with the group. We have half a team going here from November, and the rest [are] new to the system. So we knew that we were gonna be maybe clunky in a couple of places. But we really want to make sure that at the end of the day, our defense was getting the job done.”

Took the blame

National coach Tim Cone took the blame for the loss to the Chinese, saying he could’ve primed his charges better for the match.

“We knew they were going to be much improved from the last time we played them, but they were even better than we thought. That’s on me. No doubt, I should have prepared us better,” he wrote on X.

“There is obviously a lot that I would have done differently in that game if given another chance, but that is not possible now. Only thing we can do at this point is move on. I will be better. We will be better,” he added.