HONG KONG – Tim Cone and Gilas Pilipinas are in no rush to see Justin Brownlee regain his old, lethal form.

Brownlee, after all, just returned to competitive action for the first time in four months, helping Gilas Pilipinas coast to a 94-64 win over Hong Kong on Thursday, February 22, for a fine start in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. 

The beloved naturalized player earned the go signal from FIBA to suit up for the Nationals again after failing a doping test in the Asian Games as he served a voluntary suspension that started from November and ended in February. 

“We’re obviously willing to be patient for him and we know how good he is, how good of a teammate he is,” said Cone, who also coaches the Barangay Ginebra import in the PBA.

“He’s the lifeblood of this team. We’re happy that he’s back.”

Despite being away from competitive basketball for one-third of a year, Brownlee still delivered, doing it all on both ends as he posted a staggering plus-minus of +38.

Brownlee finished with a team-high 16 points on top of 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals in 27:20 minutes of action – the most by any Filipino player as Cone allowed him to find his footing.

“He hasn’t played a game in four months so he had a lot of rust to brush off and that’s why we continued to play him in the fourth quarter,” said Cone.

“I turned to the bench and said, ‘We’re going to keep Justin in there so we can continue to get his rhythm.’ So it was great to see him in the second half really get his rhythm and be the Justin that we know.”

Brownlee is set for a homecoming game as the Filipinos host Chinese Taipei at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig on Sunday, February 25, and Cone expects him to in a deadlier shape.

“We think he’ll play better against Taiwan and as we go forward. He has that history, he has that pedigree already,” Cone said. – Rappler.com