MANILA -- Aside from having an NBA-caliber player as their main gunner in Jordan Clarkson, Gilas Pilipinas' bread and butter for the much-anticipated 2023 FIBA World Cup will be its defense.

Chris Newsome admitted that the nationals will have a tough time matching their opponents shot-by-shot, but they are capable of defending their side of the court.

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"Defense is going to be a big part of what we do 'cause it’s definitely going to be hard to outscore a lot of these teams," Newsome told ABS-CBN News.

"Our best chance is to get stops and try to get easy buckets in transition as much as we can."

The Meralco wingman cited that having Ginebra coach Tim Cone is a big help in setting up defensive strategies against Dominican Republic, Angola and Italy.

"Having coach Tim there really helps. He’s a very defensive-minded coach, that’s something he preaches all the time."

With Clarkson taking lead in the scoring department, Newsome said that the rest will be working n checking the gunners of the opposing teams.

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"I’m not so focused on my offense because that’s going to come. With JC being the main point of attack we just gotta be ready to knock down shots, but other than that, our main focus is to shut down our opponent’s best perimeter guard," he said.

As far as integrating Clarkson and Kai Sotto into the system, Newsome said they are at the right track.

"They’re familiar with the system already from playing with them in the windows. Now we’re just fine tuning, understanding our defensive concepts are," he said.

"Everything’s playing out how it should be, it’s just a matter of keeping everybody in shape and healthy."

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