Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone did not mince words following his team’s narrow 69-66 loss to the New Zealand Tall Blacks in the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on Thursday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
In a post-game presser, the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings mentor stressed that coming close to beating the Tall Blacks was not enough as they are aiming for as many wins in the group stage as possible.
“I’m not gonna sit here and pretend like I’m happy about our performance,” Cone said. “The bottom line is we’re not gonna feel good or take pride in the fact that we got close or we almost won or whatever. Bottom line, we’re here to win, we didn’t do that.”
Despite the setback, Cone acknowledged that there were positive aspects in Gilas’ performance, particularly on the defensive end and in rebounding, specifically by Quentin Millora-Brown and AJ Edu.
“There were certain parts of the game that I thought we did well. We defended well, we competed on the boards. I thought our big guys, Q and AJ, played real well,” Cone said.
However, Cone pointed out that offensive struggles, especially by naturalized player Justin Brownlee, ultimately cost them the game.
“I hate saying that, well, we didn’t make shots, ’cause there’s more to the game than just making shots. And that’s the easy explanation. But if you’re saying that, it’s usually ’cause you’re not getting good shots, and we didn’t get the shots that we wanted, we didn’t get the flow that we wanted,” Cone explained.
He also credited New Zealand for disrupting Gilas’ rhythm throughout the contest.
“Credit goes to them, ’cause they defended well as well,” he added.
In the end, Cone reiterated that moral victories hold little value for the national team as it pushes forward in the qualifiers.
“But the bottom line, we’re not gonna take any pride in almost winning or making the game close or whatever. We showed up to win, and we didn’t do that tonight,” he said. (AC)
The post Tim Cone rues missed opportunity as Gilas falls short against New Zealand first appeared on Fastbreak.
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