Basketball got off to a rough start for the Philippines at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.
Gilas Pilipinas Men's 5x5 stumbled to a ninth-place finish, its worst showing in Asian Games history, and failed to reach the quarterfinals -- leaving a sour taste for a basketball-crazy nation that had expected more after being the defending champions.
But as the tournament moved forward, the country found that its basketball story in the competition was far from over.
The other basketball events offered a different picture. Gilas Women put together a promising campaign to finish fifth, matching its best-ever result from the 2023 Hangzhou Games despite playing without local star Jack Animam. Instead, the team welcomed naturalized player Elizabeth Means, whose debut added another dimension to a campaign that gave Philippine basketball something to build on.
Yet, the louder noise came from the 3x3 teams sent by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.
Gilas Men broke through to the semifinals for the first time in Asian Games 3x3 history to finish fourth, while Gilas Women went a step further, reaching the gold-medal game and taking home the Philippines' first-ever Asian Games medal in women's 3x3 basketball.
What made both campaigns particularly intriguing was not simply how far they went. It was how naturally their personnel fit the demands of 3x3.
Gilas Men: Bigger guards, mobile bigs and interchangeable roles
For Gilas Men, the name of the game in the 3x3 court was positional variety whoever they put out.
The roster of players from the University of Santo Tomas and De La Salle University in Nic Cabañero, Luis Pablo, Koji Buenaflor and Andrei Dungo had enough size, ball-handling and shooting to constantly shift responsibilities.
Cabañero could initiate offense or attack as a scorer, Pablo could operate around the paint while still putting the ball on the floor, Buenaflor gave Gilas another physical presence on the glass, while Dungo could facilitate and shoot without having to be the team's traditional point guard.
That versatility became particularly valuable because of how unforgiving the pace can be in 3x3 basketball. With only three players on the floor, every player has to contribute on both ends. A possession can begin with a handoff, turn into a switch, force a mismatch and finish with the same player who started the action crashing the offensive glass.
Defensively, the ability of Gilas to switch kept the game compact. Cabañero and Dungo could defend outside, while Pablo and Buenaflor provided size around the basket and on the glass. That mattered because 3x3 gives opponents fewer places to hide: every defensive breakdown immediately creates a driving lane, a post mismatch or an open two-point attempt.
It's exactly where Gilas Men thrived in their huge win over Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, where Cabañero scored eight, the Philippines got six points and six rebounds from Pablo, 10 rebounds from Buenaflor, and five points from Dungo. The Green Archer Pablo ultimately delivered the winning basket, but the play was a product of a team that could attack the game from different positions rather than one that needed a single creator to manufacture everything.
Gilas eventually ran into South Korea's pressure and shot-making in the semifinals and Iran's interior production in the bronze-medal game, but the tournament had already shown what the group could do.
The deeper basketball takeaway was that Gilas did not need three players with three completely different jobs. It needed players whose games overlapped enough that one could cover for another.
Gilas Women: Size without sacrificing skill
Gilas Women took the same concept and pushed it through a different personnel profile.
Kacey Dela Rosa gave the Philippines a legitimate interior presence, but Gilas Women were not simply a post-oriented team.
Amyah Espanol, Kennan Ka and Maria Pasilang gave the lineup enough ball skills, passing and rebounding to prevent the two-time UAAP MVP from becoming the only offensive hub. Instead, the four players could rotate between initiating, screening, cutting, posting and crashing the boards.
These skills mattered because 3x3 does not give teams anywhere to hide a player who can only do one thing.
Ka, in particular, showed how the tweener profile can become a weapon in this setting. She was not confined to being the team's perimeter creator. Her ability to handle the ball, make plays and rebound allowed Gilas Women to maintain their size without sacrificing another dimension of their offense.
Against Singapore in the quarterfinals, she finished with seven points, nine rebounds and five assists -- a stat line that captured how much responsibility could be shared across the lineup.
The same applied to Espanol and Pasilang, who gave the Philippines more than another pair of wings. Their ability to cut, screen and compete for rebounds meant that possessions did not have to follow a predictable guard-to-big sequence.
If Dela Rosa drew attention inside, the other players could attack the space around her. And when there's a defender switched onto a smaller player, Gilas Women had enough physicality to punish the matchup on the glass or around the basket.
The silver medal showed what Gilas Women can do when their size, skill and versatility come together. It also gave the team more belief that the gold could be within reach.
"Well, you know, we're very proud first of all. I think if you compare it to the previous Asian Games, malaking improvement, both of our teams," SBP director Erika Dy said.
"Meron talaga tayong mararating. If I'm not mistaken, this is the third silver this year for our women's team. So hopefully, the gold will come."