Final Eight teams do battle to start KO rounds

The Final Eight of the 27th Fiba-Asia Championship, the cream of the region’s crop, see action Friday with all looking for two straight wins to take them to the Last Dance.
Iran and Gilas Pilipinas topped their respective groups and will not meet each other until the Finals, if ever, and both are fancied to steamroll past separate opponents in the quarterfinals on Friday.
The Iranians, the 2007 and 2009 champions, will battle Jordan, while the Philippines got its initial wish of locking horns with Kazakhstan in the first round of the knockout phase.
South Korea and Chinese-Taipei finished second in Groups F and E behind the Iranians and the Filipinos, respectively, and drew Qatar and defending champion China, sides that wound up third in their respective groups.

Iran vs Jordan
No one has been able to come close to the Iranians thus far in the 15-nation tournament, with Hamed Hadadi and the creative Nikka Bahrami spearheading Iran to a perfect 6-0 record counting three wins in each round of the preliminaries.
Hadadi has been the yardstick among all the slotmen in the tournament, with not even fellow giant Yi Jianlian of China able to stop the 7-foot-2, crafty Iranian.
Iran has victories over China and South Korea and ran away with practically every game in the second round of the classification to clearly establish itself as the team to beat here.
The Iranians’ 3 p.m. clash with Jordan marks a repeat of their same quarterfinal pairing in the 2009 edition in Wuhan, China, where the Jordanians found a way to beat Hadadi and company before eventually losing by a point to the Chinese in the title match.
Jordan, though, does not have that same team here.
In fact, the Jordanians needed to scuttle Japan, 65-56, in their final game on Wednesday to get this far, only to draw the strongest team in the field and play the intact Iranians with a lineup that was far from the one that played in Wuhan.
Rasheem Wright and Sam Douglas are not in the squad anymore, and this could make the Jordanians easy pickings, especially if one considers how mediocre Jordan has played here thus far.
Hamed Afagh will be another headache for the Jordanians together with guard Samli Kamrhani.
And another thing going for the Iranians is that they had light assignments in the second round of the preliminaries, having gone through the tough teams like China and South Korea in the first round and needing to just dispatch of sides like India and Bahrain.
Hadadi and his fearsome teammates will come into the KO stages as fresh as they could be, with none averaging more than 20 minutes in playing time in their last three games.

Philippines vs Kazakhstan
Philippine team coach Chot Reyes had made it no secret as early as a month ago that he wanted to face Kazakhstan in the first round of the KO phase, a game which they were able to aim for after being accorded the luxury for being the event’s host.
Reyes picked to be in Group A and be with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Chinese-Taipei before finishing at the top of the group after a sheer twist of fate on Wednesday night.
Qatar’s upset of the Taiwanese coupled with the Philippines’ scary victory over Hong Kong sealed the deal for the Filipinos, who will still be in for a tough fight in their 8:30 p.m. date with the tall and beefy Kazakhs.
“There’s no such thing as a sure win in basketball,” coach Chot Reyes said, moments after the win over Hong Kong. He was also referring to the Kazakhs, whom they beat in an exhibition days before this tournament’s opening.
“”Kazakhstan is still a very dangerous team, they have great shooters and a tall frontline,” Reyes explained. “We will have our work cut out for us and we need to come out as hard as we can.”
Marcus Douthit got the rest he needed in Thursday’s break, his bruised right knee expected to have recovered from the pounding it took against Qatar on Tuesday.
He was supposed to play just 10 minutes — get some sweat out — against Hong Kong, only for the Philippines to start out flat and ultimately play its ugliest game so far.
Team Philippines cannot afford anything like that against the Kazakhs, who haven’t won a game past the preliminaries but could prove to be dangerous customers simply because of their size and a formidable point guard in Jerry Johnson.
Johnson is Kazakhstan’s naturalized player who stands not more than 5-foot-11 and controls the flow of the game for the squad.
Jason Castro and LA Tenorio would need to step up and chase Johnson all over the floor to disrupt his rhythm, for with him out of synch, the rest of the team will be out of it, too.
Reyes would also need to have his outside guns hit their mark, particularly Jeff Chan and Larry Fonacier, who have both had great games in the first round.
Gary David, the two-time PBA scoring champion, has been silent all tournament long, though he is capable of exploding any time, especially that Reyes is not giving up on the former Lyceum standout in the collegiate leagues.
Gabe Norwood and Marc Pingris will again be called upon to play defense. Anything that they contribute offensively will be a bonus for the Philippines, which is seeking to finish at least third and return to the World Championship stage next year.
The winner of this match will advance to a clash with the winner of the Qatar-South Korea tiff.

Qatar vs South Korea
South Korea knows its strength and can exploit the weakness of Qatar in their 10:30 p.m. game.
Speed is obviously what the Koreans will use against the aging Qataris, who surprised the Taiwanese, 71-68 on Wednesday by getting their foes to play to their pace – slow and deliberate.
Even Qatar coach Rob Wisman has made it no secret that they are having a tough time playing the quicker teams, mainly because they do not have the great point guards in the league.
“That’s something we have to address against South Korea because they can run all game,” Wisman said. “I don’t like to call my players old, they’re just experienced. And I hope that experience comes to fore for us.”
Qatar also lost in the quarterfinals in 2009 to the Koreans in Wuhan and Wisman is pinning his hopes on former NBA standout Jarvis Hayes and the ageless Yasseen Musa to carry the fight for the Qataris the way they did against the Taiwanese.
“Musa is 38 years old and he has been in the national program for the last 20 years,” Wisman said of his veteran. “He knows what it takes to win. He’s seen it all.”

China vs Chinese-Taipei
With that one bad game on Wednesday, what looked as a promising campaign for Chinese-Taipei suddenly turned gloomy after it drew defending champion China in the quarterfinals.
This game is set for 5:45 p.m. and the Taiwanese would need to write their own piece of Fiba-Asia history to be able to pull this one out.
Chinese-Taipei has never beaten a Chinese A-Team in its basketball history and things are certainly not looking up for them, especially after China coaching staff broke in Yi Jianlian on Wednesday night against Bahrain.
Taipei also has big players, but none with the talent of Yi.China has great guards and forward like Taipei, but the only difference is the size advantage that the Chinese have against any nation in Asia outside of Iran.
Tien Lei is Taiwan’s 6-foot-10 shooting forward who would need to step up big time if the Taiwanese are to even entertain thoughts of posting an upset.
Quincy Davis III, the first naturalized player in Taiwanese basketball history, is not giving up, though.
“We still feel strong and confident,” Davis told reporters shortly after the shocking loss to the Qataris. “There’s always a chance if we stick together and believe that we can win.”
The winner of this showdown advances to face Iran or Jordan in the Final Four.