As far as Tim Cone was concerned, Gilas Pilpinas were derailed as early as their opening game loss against Chinese Taipei in what was a flat FIBA Asia Cup appearance.
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone was candid about how early the warning bells rang for him in the FIBA Asia Cup, where they were unceremoniously bounced in a lopsided loss to Australia in the quarterfinals.
Despite breaking through with victories over Iraq and hosts Saudi Arabia later on in the tournament, Cone believed that things went south the moment Gilas Pilipinas fell to Chinese Taipei right in their opening game.
For Cone, it was something that should’ve positively set the tone for the rest of the tournament, but the loss deeply affected the team more than just the 0-1 blemish on their record after their first game in Jeddah.
“When we look back on it… and we knew this going into the tournament, we talked about from the first moment we met that the Chinese Taipei game was gonna be the most important game in the tournament,” Cone said during his interview on News5’s Power & Play.
“[We] didn't play the defense that we expected to play and that got us on our heels for the whole rest of the tournament,” he added.
[RELATED: Tim Cone admits hardest part is facing Filipino fans after Gilas' early FIBA Asia Cup exit]
After losing an initial 2-0 lead, Gilas was playing catchup for almost the whole 40 minutes against Chinese Taipei.
Chinese Taipei turned the jets right in that opening quarter and led by as many as 17, holding off a late Gilas rally to seal the victory.
It was a terrible game for Gilas Pilipinas, especially in terms of turnovers, where they committed four times as more turnovers than their foes — with 16 for Gilas and only four for Chinese Taipei.
The turnovers resulted in 18 big points for Chinese Taipei, which arguably spelled the difference despite Gilas’ superior rebounding game and bench production.
With 26 personal fouls, Gilas Pilipinas were also erratic in terms of their defense, sending Chinese Taipei to the line 35 times and making 27.
Notably, Justin Brownlee also fouled out, limiting the Philippines' offensive punch to close the game.
Nevertheless, Cone wasn’t about to make any excuses and instead commended their foes for a great tournament, despite Chinese Taipei being eliminated in the quarterfinals as well.
“[They] really threw us in for a loop, really knocked us off. Credit to them, they played a great tournament. Got knocked out by Iran eventually, but, they played a great tournament and we didn’t,” coach Tim said of Taipei, who got upset by Iran in the final minute of their quarterfinals pairing.
Up next for Gilas and Cone are the FIBA World Cup qualifiers later this year and the Southeast Asian Games.