Chris Newsome said Gilas Pilipinas’ goal in each game of the coming FIBA World Cup is not to score but to defend.
Newsome said they already have Utah Jazz star Jordan Clarkson as their main scorer, so the assignment of the rest of the Gilas crew will be pretty much on defense.
“Defense is going to be a big part of what we do ’cause it’s definitely going to be hard to outscore a lot of these teams,” said Newsome during the Titan Hoops Fair at The Courtyard in BGC Taguig.
“Our best chance is to get stops and try to get easy buckets in transition as much as we can.”
Gilas will be squaring off against the Dominican Republic, Angola, and Italy in Group A of the competitions.
Newsome said they are blessed with having Ginebra coach Tim Cone as part of their coaching staff, citing his experience in laying down effective defensive strategies.
“Having coach Tim there really helps. He’s a very defensive-minded coach; that’s something he preaches all the time.”
As far as integrating Clarkson and Kai Sotto into the system, Newsome said they are on the right track.
“They’re familiar with the system already from playing with them in the windows. Now we’re just fine-tuning and understanding what our defensive concepts are,” he said.
“Everything’s playing out how it should be; it’s just a matter of keeping everybody in shape and healthy.”
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