MELBOURNE, Australia -- The Australia Boomers have never crossed paths with Gilas Pilipinas, but they know exactly what kind of basketball they can expect from the Filipinos when they face off at the Margaret Court Arena on Thursday evening.
In this duel between undefeated teams in bracket B of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, the Boomers clearly have the height advantage. Their preparation has been geared towards neutralizing an identified Gilas strength - speed.
"That's going to be the challenge of the game -- our size versus their quickness," Boomers head coach Andrej Lemanis recognized. "Both teams will try to exploit the game to get the advantage towards their way."
"[We're concerned with] their pace and their ability to play in transition," he added.
"They do a good job at playing off of each other. When they're penetrating, they move really well. There are things they do offensively that exploit what you would call traditional defensive rotations. So we just have to smart in that space."
In the first window of the WCQ, the Filipinos averaged 16 fast break points in their games against Japan and Chinese Taipei. They were also effective in scoring from their opponent's errors, norming 13.5 turnover points in those games.
In their last full practice leading up the battle, the Boomers focused on how they'll limit the Filipinos' attacks.
"It's a real challenge that they bring to the table," Lemanis admitted. "You have to be great in that (defensive) space. You can't be giving them layups or fouling them. How we manage that part of the game will be a huge part of our we'll go."
"The good thing is that in the first window they played two games against the two teams we played as well," the Boomers mentor said. "You kind of get a little bit of a gauge with that. And they also play in professional leagues so for individual scouts and tendencies, there plenty of footage for that."
Australia proved to be more dominant in the first window. They defeated Japan and Chinese Taipei by an average margin of 31 points. Gilas only did so with an average spread of 6.5 points.
But the Boomers refuse to take their next opponents lightly.
"You can tell they are a dangerous team. They play with a lot of confidence," said Australia lead guard Jason Cadee. "You can see that they enjoy playing basketball and they have fun. And if they can be just comfortable playing against us and we don't take them out of things and make life hard for them, they can come in and beat us."
After cruising to easy wins in their two games, the Australians understand that Gilas Pilipinas could post a legitimate challenge.
"We'll need to play hard for 40 minutes to come out with the victory," Cadee said.