Gilas Pilipinas naturalized center Andray Blatche will miss several games of the Philippine Basketball Team in the William Jones Cup 2015. Blatche earlier departed for the United States to be with his family after losing his Uncle.

“We’ve been talking to Andray in the past couple of days and he’s been talking to his family. The situation is tough. His mom is alone now. She lost her last sibling and Andray has been taking care of her in the last six months so he wanted to be with her,” Coach Tab Baldwin was quoted by Sports5.ph

Blatche is set to make a return on September 8 before the Jones Cup comes to close. Asi Taulava, Marc Pingris, Moala Tuatuaa, Sonny Thoss and Ranidel De Ocampo will be the ones manning the paint to compensate for Andray’s loss.

Baldwin meanwhile tempered expectations in the Jones Cup as the team is focused more on making RP Five ready for FIBA Asia 2015. “I don’t have expectations,” Baldwin stated to Spin.ph before Gilas embarked for Taipei. “I just want us to play well and continue to grow as a team. That only thing I’m concerned about is winning the gold in FIBA Asia. Everything that leads up to that is about getting better.”

Marc Pingris for his part said that he will give it his best to lift Gilas now that Andray is not available. “Sayang, wala si Blatche. Malaking bagay siya pero kailangan namin maglaro kahit wala siya. Pero basta suot namin ang Pilipinas sa dibdib namin, lalaban kami para sa bayan natin, so sana pagdasal nyo kami,” Pinoy Sakuragi told PhilStar.com.

In addition, Ranidel De Ocampo is banking on the legions of Pinoy basketball fans in Taiwan. “Sigurado madami manonood na mga Pinoy at lalo na mga Taiwanese kasi Sunday at gusto nila panoorin kapag Pilipinas ang kalaban,” RDO confided to PhilStar.com.

The first order of battle for Pilipinas Basketball will be at 7PM today against pesky rival Taiwan A, the hosts of Jones Cup. Taiwan will be bannered by their naturalized player Quincy Davis.