Of course, their main target is to win the Asian Games gold.

But for coach Tim Cone, his immediate goal for Gilas Pilipinas was to improve every practice day as they headed to Hangzhou for the Asiad.

“We just focus on practicing every day. And then tomorrow, we’ll practice again. And then, the day after tomorrow, we’ll practice again. That’s really our focus,” Cone said after the joint training session with the Gilas women’s squad at the PhilSports Arena on September 14.

“I kept saying our goal is to win a gold medal, but our focus is not worried about that medal right now. Our focus is what we do today, or what we do tomorrow, or what we do the next day. We really want to win the gold, but that’s not our focus at this point,” he said.

Given the limited preparation time they have before the Games, Cone and his deputies are keen to build the nationals into one cohesive team.

They will spend the next five days at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna for extensive, closed-door practices.

They will take on Changwon LG Sakers on Friday, September 22, at the PhilSports Arena before flying to China the next day.

“We still got a week and guys are getting better every day. We don’t need to be good today, but we need to be good when we play our first game [against Bahrain],” Cone said.

“That’s our goal. Try to be good next [time]. Hopefully, playing until we have a chance to win a gold. We’ll see, we’ll see,” he added. (ABS-CBN News)