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EASY! EASY!
(Photo credit to FIBA.com)

After all the drama and hardships leading into the formation of the team, Gilas 3 is back in the semifinals of the FIBA Asia tournament wherein we have a realistic chance of defending our precious "golden" silver or better yet-- winning it all en route to a seat in the 2016 Rio Olympics to do battle with the world's best basketball players.

But first, we need to beat Japan tomorrow before we even entertain thoughts of facing either defending champions and longtime tormentors Iran or the "rebuilt" basketball dynasty that is China.

If the game versus Lebanon is to be of any indication, you could say that we are on the right path though there are some things that we still need to work on if our goal indeed is to not simply enjoy a podium finish but rather facing global basketball superpowers like US, Spain and Argentina, among others. Today, Jayson Castro and Andray Blatche proved that they are arguably the best 1-2 punch in all of Asian basketball, maybe rivalling/ besting Iran's Nikkhah Bahrami and Hamed Haddadi even. Castro was just in a world of his own: finishing with 25 points, blitzing into the lane and besting his young Lebanese counterpart. Blatche? Though he started the tournament out of shape, the 6"11 reinforcement is starting to show flashes of his natural form by dropping 25 points and 17 rebounds on a Lebanese side that just didn't have anyone to match him with.

Blatche is big, quick, strong and finesse but at the same time he doesn't seem to mind getting his hands dirty when called upon.