Did Kazakhstan tank vs India to avoid Gilas?

MANILA, Philippines – To many, a big mystery was Kazakhstan’s blowout loss to India, then the Kazakhs bouncing back strong to clobber Chinese Taipei.

And, thus, the Kazakhs may well be heading to the quarters while the Indians have been virtually booted out with their 76-85 loss to Gilas Pilipinas at the start of the preliminary round of the 17th Asian Games men’s basketball competition in Incheon, Korea.

Not a few were thinking the Kazakhs tanked against the Indians Monday to avoid Group E with Iran and the Philippines.

After falling down in a huge 61-80 upset by India, Kazakhstan regrouped and whipped Chinese Taipei, 74-68, at the Samsan World Gymnasium yesterday.

A win by China over Chinese Taipei tomorrow will send the Chinese and the Kazakhs into the quarterfinals.

The Kazakhs, the most heralded team from those who went through the qualifying round, can even gain outright entry with a win over the Chinese Wednesday.

Twitter users believed Kazakhstan purposely dropped its game against India.

“Probably (the Kazakhs tanked) since they know that they can match up well against CT (Chinese Taipei) since Quincy Davis is not in the lineup,” said John Quioc on his account @jkquioc.

“Yes…easier group yun napuntahan nila,” @jayvee16_98 tweeted.

“To lose by that margin to India, unthinkable,” @dchua said.

Before their match Monday, the Kazakhs and the Indians were both aware the team that would top their group would face Gilas Pilipinas Tuesday.

Incidentally, the Kazakhs lost their most recent game against the Filipinos, 58-88.