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How Gilas can still qualify for the FIBA World Cup

Gilas' chances of advancing to the FIBA World Cup in August took a major hit when it lost to Kazakhstan and Iran last week.

The losses dropped the Philippines into fourth place in Group F with a 5-5 record behind Japan at 6-4. The Philippines next plays Qatar on Feb. 21 in Doha and then Kazakhstan again on Feb. 24 in Astana.

While their path now depends on how other teams fare, there are still scenarios in which Gilas can qualify. FIBA recently released a look at how teams can advance. Here's where they stand:

Scenario 1: The surest way for the Philippines to advance is to finish among the top three in its group and avoid a three-way tie with Iran and Japan. It can do that by winning both games and hoping that Japan drops one of its last two matches while Iran wins one.

Japan hosts Iran on Feb. 21 and Qatar on Feb. 24 while Iran travels to face Australia for its second game.

Even if Gilas wins just one, it can still advance if Japan also finishes with a 6-6 record. The Philippines holds the head-to-head tie breaker advantage after defeating Japan in two earlier meetings.

In the case of the three-way tie, Gilas advances if Japan beats Iran by more than 8 points but would finish fourth if Japan wins by seven points or fewer.

Scenario 2: If Gilas finishes in fourth place in Group F, it would need a lot of help from the teams in Group E.

China, currently ranked third in Group E, gets an automatic bid as the host nation. The top three teams from each group advance, which leaves one more spot up for grabs. If Gilas ends up fourth in Group E, they would need more points than Lebanon or Jordan (currently in fourth and fifth place) to claim that last bid.

There exists the possibility that Gilas ends in a tie with Jordan or Lebanon. The tie breaker would then be the team with the highest points differential for all games played during the qualifying rounds.

Matthew Williams of ESPN's Stats&Info contributed to this report.

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