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For Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone, the nationals have a shot at beating New Zealand in the second window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. The Philippines will take on the Tall Blacks on Thursday in front of the home crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena and Cone said New Zealand may have not seen yet the team the Philippines has assembled. "I don't think they've seen a team like the team we're assembling before so I think we got a shot at beating them," Cone said in a press conference last November 13.
"We want to certainly protect our home court and we want to show our ourselves to our fans around the country, these are all very, very important to us and so I really expect us to be ready and motivated to play." Since Cone officially took over earlier this year, the Philippines has won against Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei in the first window of the Asia Cup Qualifiers, and against Latvia in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. It also, however, fell to Georgia and Brazil in the Olympic qualifiers.
Cone is also aware that the Tall Blacks are coming in with a new system under Judd Flavell. "They do have a new coach and so their system is going to change a little bit, they're bringing over a little different personnel than they have from the past years," Cone said, adding that they have been in the process of studying the players which will represent New Zealand. The Gilas Pilipinas pool has not changed that much since the last two FIBA events, only now that Jamie Malonzo and AJ Edu will not be playing due to injuries , while Kai Sotto has already been cleared to compete in the second window.
READ | Gilas Pilipinas at the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers —JKC, GMA Integrated News.
