Gilas Pilipinas ran roughshod on another formidable foe in Qatar on Tuesday night and is playing with its finest form in the 27th Fiba-Asia Championship.

And that is something that the Filipinos will need down the road – make that two days from now.

Team Philippines started out hot and finished with conviction, ripping Qatar apart, 80-70, Tuesday to formalize its march into the KO stages against probably mighty China on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

“Pending a miracle, it seems we just sealed a date with China,” coach Chot Reyes told a packed interview room after the Philippines seemed poised to finishing second in its group to draw the No. 3 Chinese in the first round of the KO stages, the quarterfinals.

“But there was no way that we would have come out today not playing our best,” the firebrand mentor added, as he could have elected to drop the game to possibly advance against South Korea on Friday.

“We have to prepare and prepare hard for what would be our biggest battle,” he continued.

The Philippines held the tall and thick Qataris to just nine points in the second quarter to build a 47-29 lead at the turn, never looking back from there even with naturalized center Marcus Douthit suffering a knee injury late in the third period.

Douthit, who hit 13 points in the first half, accidentally bumped knees with Khalid Abdi with 4:09 left in the third period and the Philippines leading comfortably, 57-34. And this gave Reyes no choice but to recall him to the bench.

“Accidents like that happen in tournaments like this,” Reyes said of the incident. “We will have him checked tomorrow and hopefully, it’s not that serious.”

Douthit’s sporadic presence on the floor gave the Qataris the chance to make the final score what it was with Jarvis Hayes, the 10th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft that included Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony, bringing Qatar back somewhat.

Qatar came within nine points twice late in the fourth period, but it was clear that the Filipinos already had a lock on the game, winning for the second straight night for 3-1 overall, now tied with their victims.

The miracle that Reyes was talking about was for Qatar to beat Chinese-Taipei on Wednesday to forge a three-way tie for the Group E lead at 4-1. In that scenario, the quotient system would be applied and the Philippines could wind up on top and draw the lightest assignment in the first round of the cross-over playoffs.

But should the Taiwanese win, the Filipinos will be No. 2 and will clash with the No. 3 Chinese, who dealt India a 79-45 defeat in one of the earlier games to rise to 3-2.

Team Philippines closes out against Hong Kong also Wednesday and Reyes basically hinted that he will be letting Douthit and most of his core take a breather.

Douthit finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds and four assists despite being limited to just 28 minutes. Jeff Chan fired 14 markers, hitting his first two triples that got the Philippines to the rip-roaring start that it wanted.

Hayes went on to shoot 17 for the Qataris.

The Taiwanese, meanwhile, dodged another bullet in Japan earlier, posting a 79-76 victory to remain unbeaten in four games and creep closer toward No. 1 seeding and a possible ‘lighter’ clash with Kazakhstan.

Wen Ting-Tseng, the pony-tailed Taiwanese veteran, hit a crucial trey and the hard-nosed Chih Chieh-Lin completed a gutsy three-point play in the stretch that allowed Taipei to escape the claws of the Japanese.

Tseng and Lin, who were both big in an 84-79 win over the Filipinos last Saturday, again delivered when needed and ultimately sealed Japan to a No. 4 ranking and a clash with the undefeated Iranians also Friday.

“It was close, we chased them the whole game,” Kosuke Takeuchi, the 6-foot-10 power forward of Japan told reporters through an interpreter after his team took a second straight loss and dropped to 1-3 overall.

“We didn’t have enough,” Takeuchi said. “We played team defense in the stretch but we simply failed to stop them.”

Tseng also sealed the win for the Taiwanese with two free throws off the fourth foul of JR Sakuragi that made it 79-73 with just over 25 seconds remaining.

“We knew that Japan was going to be tough,” Tseng said through the team interpreter. “We have a lot to work on in our next games. The coaches have been preparing us well and we are making good use of that on the court.”

Tseng finished with 19 points and Lin 16. Taiwan, incidentally, hit just six triples for the night, its fewest in a game thus far. Against the Filipinos, the Taiwanese made 15-of-30 tries from there.

“Lin and Tseng just gave Japan trouble,” Taiwanese coach Hsu Chin-Che said in halting English. “They (Japanese) played good defense. But we still forced them to turnovers.”

Iran, the 2007 and 2009 champion, continued to work up a little sweat in running through its schedule, posting a 75-56 victory over Bahrain for its fourth straight win in Group F.

Nikka Bahrami, the creative European league veteran, paced the Iranians with 17 points in 22 minutes with Hamed Afagh shooting 15 in just 16 minutes on the floor.

Iran had the luxury yet again to not extend National Basketball Association veteran Hamed Hadadi, playing its 7-foot-2 center for just 18 minutes and getting nine points, eight rebounds and two blocks.