JAKARTA -- Gilas Pilipinas snuck in one last practice Saturday morning, hours before the opening ceremonies of the 18th Asian Games here.
The team found a new practice facility, a Christian school in South Jakarta that has a Filipino teacher who helped arrange the 90-minute practice.
The court, located on the seventh floor, can only be accessed by an elevator with guards on the ground floor strictly screening those who wished to go watch the practice.
Nevertheless, the number of Filipinos watching the practice slowly grew as they found a way to get the facility.
"We're not rushing and the atmosphere here is relaxed. Not like the 50 minutes of practice the other day, we had to rush things. We can't get the usual repetitions and the attention to details that you want. Now we had almost two hours of practice but no one is rushing us to leave the gym," national team head coach Yeng Guiao said.
There was another crowd of Filipinos at the ground floor waiting for the team as word spread about Gilas' presence.
During their practice, the team was trying different sets that could break a zone defense, which Guiao believes China may use to disrupt their offense.
"(China) might zone us, they have two 7-footers who might play at the same time. If they close the lanes, we need to be prepared. I also want Jordan to get used to playing the zone. Because in the NBA, they don't play zone. So as early as now, we want him to get used to zone defense just in case," explained Guiao.
"Either way if they zone us or they play matchups against us, we'll be ready. We have the outside shooters to attack their zone. If they're matching up with us, we can run our regular plays. I feel we can be successful with our execution," he added. "Jordan Clarkson adds a lot of options whether they're zoning us or playing matchups. It's just a matter of him getting comfortable."
The team will march in the opening ceremonies with the rest of the Philippine delegation, with Clarkson serving as the flag-bearer.
Clarkson's father, Mike, arrived in Jakarta later in the day with hopes of watching the ceremonies at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
The Philippines faces China on August 21 hoping to sweep their group and get a more favorable opponent in the knockout quarterfinals.