The Philippines battles Syria on Friday for a fifth-place finish in men's basketball at the Asian Games.
While the Filipinos are heavily favored against Syria, which is looking for its best finish in the Asiad. Syria's previous best finish was 10th place in the 2006 Qatar edition.
It is only the second time Syria basketball has qualified for the Asian Games and also is enjoying the recent success of making it to the second round of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
Syria's Michel Madanly -- who played two conferences in the PBA for NLEX in 2015 and Talk n' Text in 2016 -- is conspicuously absent from the lineup after playing in all six FIBA World Cup Asian qualifier games. The 36-year-old former FIBA Asia scoring champion is sitting the Asian Games out to to prepare for the fourth window where Syria will face New Zealand in the opener.
Syria has gone to a number of its youngsters in the Asian Games to varying degrees of success.
Syria was fortunate to be placed in Group B-the original group of the Philippines before its initial withdrawal from the tournament. But when the Philippines was reassigned to Group D (with Kazakhstan and China) and the eventual decision by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to forego its participation in the event, Syria got a free pass to the quarterfinals even after absorbing a loss against its lone partner in the group, Iran (68-55).
In the knockout quarterfinals, however, the Syrians had a golden opportunity to advance to their first-ever semifinal appearance as they led Chinese Taipei 58-57 at the end of the third period. The Taiwanese pulled off an 82-75 win to relegate Syria to the classification round. Syria downed Indonesia 76-66 to advance to face the Philippines.
In the three games, Syria was paced by different players.
In the preliminary round loss to the Iranians, it was 7-foot-2 Abdulwahab Alhamwi who got his way against the interior defenses (led by aging veteran Hamed Haddadi) for a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Knowing their opponents well, the Iranians locked down on the shooters of Syria, but had great difficulty containing Alhamwi's inside play.
In the setback against Chinese Taipei, the backcourt did the damage with point guard Tarek Aljabi's game-high 28 points. Aljabi consistently took it to the Taiwanese defenses and pulled up for nearly unchallenged jumpers. He sputtered in the end but was ably assisted by Sharif Al Osh who hit four triples.
Against the host nation, Aljabi took advantage of his superior speed and erupted for 33 points, including four 3-pointers Alhamwi manned the inside with four blocks.
Syria depends heavily on six players and their Serbian coach Veselin Matić has made sure they do a lot of heavy lifting, just as they do in the FIBA qualifiers.
Alhamwi is the one who sees the least burn because of his stamina and his backup Omar Alskaikh does just enough to give him a needed breather. It has really been Aljabi taking the reins in the absence of Madanly, while the offensive support of Al Osh and Bakar has been vital. The sixth player who gets a lot of minutes is youngster Khalil Khouri who is more of a defensive asset, especially against the opposing shooters.
The Philippines will have to pick their poison in this matchup.
Christian Standhardinger will definitely draw Alhamwi early. It will take a lot of strength to push the 254-pound pivot out of his comfort zone, but he is also a decent passer and once Aljabi gets the first step on the defenses, he could be sailing in for a layup.
Zoning the Syrians will open up opportunities for Al Osh and Bakar, and their European style of play wherein everyone is an outside threat will come into play.
However, the Philippines has more than enough weapons to win.
Jordan Clarkson is primed for a supernova showing in his final game, while Paul Lee, Chris Tiu and Maverick Ahanmisi should have plenty of momentum after routing Japan. Stanley Pringle could be the antidote to Aljabi's while James Yap has also been cleared to play. The Philippine frontcourt will be busy defensively, but will still have an edge on offense if they can stay away from Alhamwi's range.