At least this time, it was more competitive.
Philippines dropped to third in Group D of the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta after falling to New Zealand, 92-75, in the final group stage game on Sunday evening.
The last time these two sides met, the Tall Blacks walked away with a 46-point win in Auckland. But while Gilas can take some consolation from this more respectable scoreline, at the end of the day, it is still a loss which sends them down a much tougher path to the quarterfinals.
A win would have set up a clash with a less-dangerous Syria side. Instead, they must now get past Japan, which has a legitimate NBA player on its roster.
"We improved from the last time we played against them," team captain Kiefer Ravena said. "Definitely we played a much better game, although this is a different New Zealand team."
Here are five thoughts on the game and what's ahead for Gilas.
A couple of weird game stats
When the first quarter ended, the scoreline read 30-16 for New Zealand. No big deal since the Tall Blacks got off to a hot start.
The rebounding tally, though, was an astonishing 21-1 in favor of New Zealand. Think about that -- Gilas grabbed just one rebound in the first ten minutes of the game. By the end of the game, the Tall Blacks had booked a massive 61-28 rebounding advantage.
"We lost the game in the first quarter," coach Chot Reyes said. "There's no way for us to win a ball-game getting out-rebounded that way."
The other unusual stat: Gilas had just one turnover for the entire game, while New Zealand had 13. That translated into an 18-0 advantage in turnover points for Gilas, but it hardly mattered as the Tall Blacks' massive offensive rebounding advantage (20-7) and better three-point shooting (11-of-30 compared to 6-of-25) proved decisive.
"It's amazing that we had one turnover the whole game," Ravena added. "Getting outrebounded by more than our actual rebounds is another mind-boggling fact."
Tall Blacks coach Pero Cameron couldn't care less about Gilas' solitary turnover.
"More concerned with our 13 than their one. When we turn it over like that, we don't get a lot of looks."
Good bounce-back by the Tall Blacks
Lebanon emerged as the surprise Group D winner after the Cedars followed up a stunningly easy 95-80 win over New Zealand on Friday with a routine 104-63 drubbing of India.
That put the Tall Blacks in a more urgent situation against Gilas, and to their credit they went out and got the job done, jumping out to a quick 13-3 lead and never looking back despite playing with only 11 healthy men.
"A few things went our way," Cameron said. "We were making shots. Solid win for us and pretty good performance. The rebounding stats stick out for us."
The Tall Blacks were without 6-foot-5 Max Darling, who was injured early in the Lebanon game and was a major part of Cameron's rotation.
"We lost Max Darling the other night and he's a big part of our team," the New Zealand coach added.
Kiefer finally gets going
After taking a total of just eight attempts and scoring as many total points in their first two games, 'manong' Kiefer looked for his shot more against New Zealand, going 6-of-13 from the field for a team-high 17 points and an efficiency rating of 19.
But like the rest of the team, he just didn't have it from beyond the arc, where he went a dismal 1-of-6.
Because he was also the primary ball-handler, Ravena was out of gas in the fourth period and had to commit a foul just to get subbed out and catch his breath. When he went to the bench, there was still 6:16 left and Gilas was trailing 73-59.
As he returned with 2:01 left, the lead had ballooned to 90-72. His main replacement, SJ Belangel, couldn't stay in front of Tall Blacks point guard Flynn Cameron, who repeatedly waltzed to the hoop unchallenged for 18 points.
The other point guard on the Gilas roster, RJ Abarrientos, saw action for an inconsequential 82 seconds and has had a rough tournament so far after injuring his ankle earlier in the week.
A must-win against Japan
The Japanese fell to second in Group D after absorbing an 88-76 loss to Iran earlier on Sunday. They are led by former Toronto Raptors forward Yuta Watanabe, who has been averaging 15.3 points and 8.0 boards, and 6-8 naturalized player Luke Evans.
The 'Akatsuki Five' -- as the team is known -- made headlines against Syria when they sank a record 27 triples in a 117-56 win.
"Hopefully they don't do that against us," Ravena said.
"Now we have to forget this ball game and just focus our energies and our thoughts on the next game," Reyes added. "The next team we're playing plays a completely different type of ball game. So we told the players that they have to get their rest because we need a lot of energy and all of our quickness to stay with Japan."
It won't get easier for the winner of this game as defending champions Australia await in the quarterfinals.
What's happening elsewhere?
Meanwhile, New Zealand face Syria, the tournament's Cinderella team, for a spot in the quarterfinals. The Syrians sent shockwaves across the tournament by ousting heavily-favored Kazakhstan, 77-67, after losing their first two games by an average of 37 points.
The tournament landscape looks like this: Australia, Korea, Iran and Lebanon are through to the quarterfinals. The match-ups for the quarterfinal qualification are China vs. Indonesia, Jordan vs. Chinese Taipei, Philippines vs. Japan, and New Zealand vs. Syria.
Again, the hosts have to qualify for the quarterfinals in order to play in next year's FIBA World Cup. And to do that, they must beat 16-time champions China.