GUANGZHOU — The shorthanded Smart Gilas national basketball team breezed through India, 78-57, Sunday but faced more problems other than injuries to key players in the 16th Asian Games.

A shock 88-87 win by Qatar over previously unbeaten Japan forged a knockout match between Gilas and Chinese Taipei on Monday.

Serbian coach Rajko Toroman said Qatar changed the equation entirely.

“Instead of being assured of the quarterfinals win or lose against Chinese-Taipei, we now have to play a knockout match,” Toroman said.

Going into the last day of the eliminations, Iran, Japan and Qatar have identical 3-1 win-loss records while Smart Gilas holds an even 2-2 slate.

Despite a 1-3 card, Chinese Taipei can still advance to the quarterfinals with a victory over the Filipinos. The winner-over-the-other rule applies in a tie between two teams.

Down to only seven healthy players, Toroman needs to bring out the best from everyone to get past Taiwan, a solid three-point shooting team.

Apart from Japeth Aguilar who has been sent home due to knee injury, Solomon Mercado has not played the last two matches due to foot problems.

Marcio Lassiter, JV Casio and Chris Tiu are also playing hurt and would be performing less than 100 percent against Chinese Taipei.

“Some of them might not play tomorrow,” Toroman confided. “We have no choice. We’ve got to fight through this adversity.

Against India, the Filipinos started tight and were unable to settle the game early.

Up, 31-30, at the half, the Filipinos ripped the game apart in the third quarter with 12 unanswered points to take a 48-34 lead.

Indian top gunner Jagdeep Singh was taken out of the game with an elbow injury with four minutes gone in the third quarter.

“Without him (Singh), we couldn’t compete against the Philippines,” said Bill Harris, India’s American coach. “Our bench is not deep enough and because of the intensity of Philippines’ defence, we can’t handle the pressure.”

Fil-American Chris Lutz played 32 minutes as Tiu and Casio spent most of the second half on the bench. Lassiter, still recovering from an assortment of injuries even before the tournament started, saw action for eight minutes and made two points.

“Lutz has not been playing well. I needed him to regain his confidence so I kept him on the floor,” said Toroman who also benched Kelly Williams and Asi Taulava the entire fourth quarter.

“I know tomorrow is going to be a tough game. We will try to go as far as we can and concentrate on every game,” said Lutz who had 10 points.

A quarterfinal match with either China or South Korea could not be avoided even if Gilas hurdles Chinese-Taipei.

In a battle of unbeaten squads Sunday, China whipped the Koreans, 76-66.

Toroman, however, won’t go far beyond Chinese-Taipei which gave Iran a scare before bowing, 73-72, Sunday.

The scores:
PHILIPPINES 78 — Casio 18, Tiu 13, Lutz 10, Taulava 10, Barroca 8, Williams 7, Baracael 6, Slaughter 4, Lassiter 2, Ballesteros 0
INDIA 57 — Singh J. 14, Singh Y. 10, Bhriguvanshi 10, Mishra 6, Shan 6, Pereira 6, Koroth 2, Coimbatore 2, Rathee 1, Singh K. 0, Jat 0
Quarters: 21-14, 31-30, 63-41, 78-57