The Philippines will not have much time to dwell on the 91-81 loss to defending champion South Korea at the 18th Asian Games.
The Philippines will face Japan in the consolation pool at 5 p.m. Tuesday and have an opportunity to improve on a seventh-place finish four years ago at the Asian Games.
Japan's men's basketball team has made headlines for reasons off the court. Japan sent home four players -- Keita Imamura, Takuya Hashimoto, Yuya Nagayoshi, and Takuma Sato -- for spending the night with women in a Jakarta hotel, delegation head Yasuhiro Yamashita said on Monday.
The team had made positive headlines little over a month ago as the first Asian team to beat 2017 FIBA Asia Cup titlists Australia since the two zones merged.
Japan's depleted Asian Games roster still managed to come away with two victories in the preliminary round to advance to the final eight before falling in the quarterfinals to Iran, 93-67.
Japan entered the Asian Games without some notable veterans as it prepares for the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers in September. Noticeably absent from the lineup are guards Makoto Hiejima and Daiki Tanaka, Japanese-American forward Rui Hachimura, and newly naturalized former NBA and PBA campaigner Nick Fazekas.
Nagayoshi is the only suspended player to have seen action in the first round of the qualifiers. Japan -- like the Philippines -- sent a different contingent with only three included from the FIBA squad.
Naoto Tsuji has now taken the reins for Japan as his shooting touch has been vital in Japan's wins against Qatar and Hong Kong.
Japan is also fielding Japanese-American Avi Schafer from Georgia Tech University. Schafer is an incoming junior at Georgia Tech and is spending the summer in his home country. Schafer was born in Osaka and coach Julio Lamas decided to try him out. Schafer has played in only four games for Georgia Tech.
Schafer will be learning the ropes from veteran big man Atsuya Ota -- one of the last players remaining from the Japanese squad that visited Manila for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship -- who has played heavy minutes at two different positions.
Japan has been using eight players for the past two assignments. With this short rotation in the first back-to-back playing days, it could take its toll.
The Philippines has a plethora of combinations it can throw at the shorthanded Japan roster. The winner moves on to face the winner of the Indonesia and Syria game for fifth place.