Facing Gilas Pilipinas – Kuwait

Gilas Pilipinas will wrap up their play in Group B of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship against Kuwait, a team the Philippines hasn’t played against this decade.

Background

The Philippines has had the edge in this match-up, 5-2, although it has been 6 years since the two last met for a major tournament (2009 with RP victorious, 85-71). 

The Kuwaitis were a power in Gulf basketball in the 1980s but are nowhere within the top ranked Pan-Arab teams. Still, they are tabbed to finish second in the group owing to their experience edge over the up-and-coming Palestine. 

Players to watch out for:

One of their most aggressive outside shooters is point guard Ahmad Albaloushi. Hussein Alkhabbaz is an athletic defender with good timing on his shot block attempts. Among their better big men are forward/centers Abdullah Alshammari and Abdulazziz Mohammad.  

Scouting report:

There is much to be learned from Kuwait depending on the quality of their competition. 

The Kuwaitis gave a good account of themselves in the 2014 Asian Games, topping Group A with a 3-0 record in the qualifying rounds beating the likes of Mongolia, Hong Kong, and Maldives. It is the rapidly improving Mongols who gave them fits as they pulled off a squeaker, 82-81. Once in the preliminary round, grouped with Qatar and Japan, the Kuwaitis crashed out, 0-2, finishing 10th in the 16-team field.

They don’t have a lot of height. Saleh Albrahim, their 6-foot-8 center, is at most a project and doesn’t make an impact during games, leaving them no choice put to play a pair of power forwards up front — 6-foot-5 Abdullah Alshammari and Abdulazziz Mohammad.  

The Kuwaitis, at least by way of their last Asian Games performance, drew firepower from 6-foot point guard Ahmad Albaloushi, who averaged 14.0 points in that tourney, and small forward Hussein Alkhabbaz, who was perhaps their most consistent performer, scoring in double digits in every match with 11.6 ppg.

Kuwait lost to two foes the Philippines has regularly faced, Qatar and Japan. The Qataris won, 79-69, leading the whole way, but Kuwait gave them fits. The Kuwaitis scored 22 turnover points from 9 steals and the atrocious 45 errors of Qatar (they themselves threw the ball away 31 times but their Gulf foe managed to score a measly 4 points from them). Kuwait equalized Qatar’s output in inside points with 34 apiece. 

It was Qatar’s edge in the offensive glass, 11-7, that allowed them to get the win, with 10 huge markers off second chances (Kuwait scored only four). 

Against, Japan, Kuwait played catch up but never seriously threatened in an 89-75 loss. Japan shot a lot better than Kuwait and hurt them with points off turnovers, scoring 20-9. 

How the Philippines should play them:

Press them into oblivion. 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.

– Rappler.com