The crown is heavy, but Gilas Pilipinas—without Justin Brownlee—is determined to fight with everything it has to keep it in its Asian Games title defense in Japan.

"For us, it's embracing it, using it as a fuel to prove that we belong, that we can do it," said big man Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, speaking about the pressure the all-Filipino crew faces.

"It's a combination of just believing in ourselves and using the pressure as fuel while also knowing that we're still building and processing as a team. And it might not click right away (for now) but when it clicks, hopefully it's at the right time, we'll be able to have a good finish here."

Gilas enters the tournament handicapped by the absence of a naturalized player, with Mr. Brownlee unlikely to join due to health issues. It marks a stark change from 2023 in Hangzhou, where the nationals rode Mr. Brownlee's scoring to the country's first Asian Games men's basketball gold in decades, and it leaves the Philippines defending its title with an entirely homegrown rotation in Nagoya.

The Nationals will now have to rely on one another as they face challengers who are making the most of the passport-only eligibility requirement to field multiple naturalized imports in Nagoya. Under Asian Games rules, unlike FIBA competitions that limit teams to one naturalized player, countries can roster players who hold passports of the nation they represent—giving squads such as Bahrain a chance to stack their lineups with overseas-reinforced talent.

"'Yung SEA Games namin wala kaming import, walang expectations na mag-go-gold kami. Ngayon, wala na namang import, sana maka-swerte na naman kami," said Robert Bolick, referring to his stint with "Gilas Team C" that bucked the odds and retained the crown at the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand last year.

"Hopefully, makuha namin 'yung gold para maganda, hindi lang para sa akin, para sa team. Baka hindi kami makatulog kasi 'yun ang expectations din namin. Sana mag-gold kami."

Coach Tim Cone said that even with a totally different roster from the winning squad bannered by Mr. Brownlee and Ange Kouame in 2023, the target remains the same for Gilas.

"We're going to go with this one all-Filipino, unless Justin makes a last-second appearance. So expectations for this one are going to be a little bit different for us. But we're still going to shoot for the gold," he said.

"But we're also just going to worry about what we do every day. And that's what we did in '23. Just worry about what's right in front of us and take care of that every day and hope that in the end, we look up and we have a gold medal again."

What is right in front is Bahrain in the Group C opener on Friday. The Bahrainis are parading four imports in former NBA player JaKarr Sampson, Elijah Thomas, Uros Ilic and Austin Ajukwa. — Olmin Leyba