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20 November, 2017
26 February, 2019
22/11/2017
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Philippines aiming to thwart Japan once again at Asian Qualifiers

MANILA (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - Japan may be hoping for payback on Friday at the Asian Qualifiers, but the Philippines do not plan to oblige.

Japan and the Philippines have had a long history of facing each other in Asian basketball, but lately the Filipinos have held the advantage in their most recent head-to-head encounters. The Philippines have come out on top in each of their last five meetings with Japan, including beating the Akatsuki Five in the battle for third place at the FIBA Asia Cup 2015.

The last time Japan managed to defeat the Philippines was more than a decade ago in the FIBA Asia Challenge 2004, where the Japanese absolutely demolished the Filipinos, 106-46.

Chances are there won't be such blowouts in their game this time around, especially with both teams having rigorously trained for the past few weeks. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact naturalized players Andray Blatche and Ira Brown will be able to give their respective squads while, at the same time, the chess match between coaches Chot Reyes and Julio Lamas, who already met each other in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014, should be very interesting to see.

Key Matchups: Both the Philippines and Japan are guard-driven teams, and so the key matchups will be in the backcourt. Expected to star for Gilas are "The Blur" Jayson Castro, streaky shooter Matthew Wright and "The Phenom" Kiefer Ravena, while Japan will probably rely on Yuki Togashi, Daiki Tanaka and their own sniper Takatoshi Furukawa. Needless to say, playmaking, perimeter defense and long range shooting will all be critical in this encounter, and all those aforementioned players will need to step up to deliver the goods for their respective squads.

Key Stats: In the most recent Asia Cup 2017, the Philippines and Japan were the least turnover-prone teams. The Filipinos were best at taking care of the basketball with just 12.3 turnovers per game, while Japan averaged only 12.5. Again, that speaks volumes of the brilliant playmaking for both teams, but it also poses a challenge for their respective coaches to craft defensive schemes that will force the other team into uncomfortable situations in their Asian Qualifiers game. Coach Lamas was a master of that in his years with Argentina, and he will surely bank on that wealth of experience opposite coach Chot, who, for his part, has been the architect of many famous Philippine wins in the past. If one team succeeds in forcing the other into a bevy of mistakes, then that could prove to be the difference between winning and losing.

FIBA