Gilas Pilipinas vs. Syria: Time, Live Stream for 2018 Asian Games
Gilas Pilipinas is not going to earn a medal in men's basketball in the Asian Games, but the team is assured of no worse than a sixth-place finish in the international competition.
While that may not sound glorious, it does represent an improvement for the Philippines. The team finished seventh in the 2014 Asian Games.
If head coach Yeng Guiao's team can pick up a win Thursday over Syria, Gilas will finish in fifth place.
Guiao liked what he saw in the Philippines' last game against Japan. Gilas rolled to a 113-80 win over the short-handed Japanese team. Jordan Clarkson of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Christian Standhardinger combined for 49 points in the victory.
"We're just trying to salvage the best-placed finish that we can and try to play good," Guiao said, per Sid Ventura for ESPN.com. "We're trying to finish on a winning note. I think that's a good going-away present Jordan before he goes back to the States for (training) camp. We want to feel good about this whole thing. Of course, we've had some sorry losses."
The Philippines and Syria will tip off at 7:30 am. ET in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the game will be live-streamed on YouTube.
The game against Japan was fairly close late in the second quarter, when Gilas decided to put their opponents away. Holding a slim three-point lead, the Filipinos went on an 18-0 run bridging the second and third quarters to drain their opponents of any real chance of coming away with an upset victory.
The Philippines had dropped its quarterfinal game to South Korea by a 91-82 score prior to the win over Japan. Gilas had beaten Kazakhstan in its tournament opener before losing to China.
Syria played competitively in dropping an 82-75 decision to Chinese Taipei, but it bounced back with a 76-66 win over Indonesia. Syria had lost its first tournament game to Iran.
