A modified offense, strict midnight curfew, and a no-family-in-the-hotel policy underscore the seriousness of the situation facing Powerade-Team Pilipinas as the days before departure for the 25th FIBA-Asia Men’s Championship set August 6-16 in Tianjin, China dwindle down to half a week.

Addressing a glaring vulnerability in the Nationals’ offensive arsenal, the RP team is working overtime at the multi-basket Moro Lorenzo Sports Center to improve its outside shooting which has gone from bad to worse during the 31st William Jones Cup tournament in Taipei, sometimes missing 18, even 21 three-point shots.

“We have changed some of our patterns to fit the international style,” said Guiao on Thursday in the facility at the heart of the Ateneo campus in Quezon City.

“The players have been coming in a little earlier (to the gym) and practicing their shots,” he said. “They’ve been shooting a little better but it’s not yet good enough. We still need to spend the next few days just working hard on making the three-point shot.”

An emergency patch-up job, Guiao said, is next to plug the Nationals’ porous defense which got riddled in the Jones Cup by practically everybody, including South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, teams the Philippines has to beat in the FIBA Asia to have a good chance at making the quarterfinals.

Getting past the Koreans and the Japanese, plus Sri Lanka, in Group A is imperative for the RP team to have “more breathing space” – according to Guiao – for the ensuing games against Group B teams Iran, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, and Taiwan.

The Nationals meet Fadi El-Khatib and the Lebanese team, reinforced by 6-foot-9 Jackson Vroman and a Dirk Nowitzki play-alike forward named Matt Freije, in a crucial scrimmage at the Moro Lorenzo tomorrow, giving them the opportunity to gauge if the hasty adjustments made after their sixth place tumble in Taipei are for naught.

“It’s our last chance to see what final fine-tuning has to be done,” said Guiao. “Then we have two days to make some adjustments.”