Gilas Pilipinas vs. Kuwait: Time, Live Stream for 2015 FIBA Asia Championships

There's no other way to put it: Friday's matchup with Kuwait (4:45 p.m. ET/Thursday, Sports 5) is the biggest game of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship for the Philippines. A win and a Palestine loss would likely result in Gilas taking Group B and entering elimination play among the favorites.  

A loss could result in a No. 3 seed or even an elimination if Kuwait pulls off a historic thrashing. As it stands, the Philippines are almost certainly advancing to the knockout stage. Its plus-49 point differential is by far the best of Group B, as it rebounded from a two-point loss to Palestine to take down Hong Kong by 51 points.

Jayson William scored a team-high 21 points, and Andray Blatche had 17 points and eight rebounds in only 17 minutes played. Gilas were ahead 51-22 at halftime and stretched the lead into the 40s by the end of the third quarter. 

“Anyone who plays in the NBA and is a legitimate NBA player is super talented but the crazy thing about it is his quickness and his length. His size – there are bigger Chinese players. But he’s so quick and he’s so long,” Hong Kong's Duncan Reid said of Blatche, per Mikkel Bolante of InterAksyon.com. "Obviously, his fitness is getting better but if you can move like that and you can shoot like that, you’re really at his mercy. There’s really no one else like him in Asia right now.”

Blatche has been playing himself back into peak form over the last few weeks after taking an extended break to mourn the death of his uncle. The former NBA forward missed part of the William Jones Cup while back in the states. Through two games in China, Blatche seems on the precipice of taking over the tournament. Had he needed to play more than 17 minutes, he certainly would have had his second straight double-double, dominating the interior on both ends.

“I’m worried about us,” Blatche said, per the Chinese media (via Musong R. Castillo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer). “I’m worried about how we come out and execute. When we play together and we hit our shots, we’re a tough team like we showed today. As long as we play with the same effort, we will be fine. We will get our goal (of winning the gold medal and going to the Olympics next year in Brazil).”

Kuwait, meanwhile, appears headed straight for the classification round. The Group B underdog has lost its first two games by a combined 58 points, putting it ahead of only Malaysia and Singapore heading into Friday's action. The Kuwaiti defense has struggled throughout, allowing 177 points and consistently showing its talent deficiencies.

Ahmad Albaloushi and Hussein Alkhabbaz have been their most consistent players thus far. Albaloushi has been an aggressive creator off of the dribble, while Alkhabbaz has been a regular fixture in double figures. Overall, though, the team's lack of height and skill has been a major factor in falling behind early and not being able to mount a comeback.

"Press them into oblivion," Rick Olivares of Rappler wrote of how the Philippines should play Kuwait. "Albaloushi had more turnovers (14) than assists (12) in the last Asian Games. They aren’t that great defensively so expect the Filipinos’ dribble drive offense to wreak havoc on their defense."

From an outside perspective, it should not matter how Gilas play Kuwait. They are by far the better of the two teams and could likely sleepwalk their way to a victory. The biggest reason to press hard would be to ensure they have the best point differential in Group B, which would override Palestine's head-to-head win in the FIBA tiebreaking scenarios.

Basically, win and cross your fingers that Hong Kong can pull off a semiupset of Palestine.