Philippine Sports News

Coach Chot faces dilemma on whether to play injured Blatche vs. Argentina

September 1, 2014 Philippine Sports News

With two defeats and needing to win at least two of their remaining three games to have a chance to move into the next round of the FIBA World Cup competition in Spain, Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reys is in a dilemma on whether to play injured naturalized player Andray Blatche or to have him sit out the game against Argentina scheduled Monday night Philippine time.

In an overseas conversation with Yahoo Philippines, Reyes said that when he wanted to pull out Blatche in the fourth quarter of the game against Greece as he was hobbling around,  the naturalized Filipino said “No Coach, just one more push” which prompted Reyes to pay tribute to Blatche saying  “if there are any doubts about his heart he has answered the doubts” with the way he played through the pain. Blatche is hobbled by a twisted knee which he injured during Gilas’ game against Croatia.

Reyes said Blatche is playing through the pain because he has seen how players like Mark Pingris “battle players who are much taller” while the others have demonstrated their fighting hearts and Blatche has embraced this.

The coach said he was worried “if we go hard again tomorrow (against Argentina) we may lose Andray for the last two games”, which are against Puerto Rico which was stunned by Senegal and Senegal itself in the last game of Gilas.

Reyes said he will evaluate Blatche’s status some hours before  the Argentina game and may decide to “play him in the first half and see how it goes.”

The dilemma Reyes faces also involves which two teams he thinks Gilas can beat. Argentina isn’t as awesome as in the past and its loss to Croatia confirmed that fact with Reyes thinking that Gilas Pilipinas could overcome Argentina if the performance in the heartbreaking overtime loss to Croatia is any indication.

With Senegal’s win over Puerto Rico, Reyes has to figure out whether his best chance is to rest Blatche in the Argentina game so he would be in better shape for the games against Puerto Rico and Senegal or field him in the Argentina game and hope he could handle it and help Gilas win. Even though he hobbled around at times in the Greece game Blatche still finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Gilas Pilipinas has proven it can play with the best basketball teams in the world and hold its own against the giants of Europe in the FIBA World Cup in Seville, Spain after going down to Greece, the No. 5 ranked team in the world 82-70 early Monday morning Manila Time.

With Croatia having beaten Argentina and Senegal overcoming Puerto Rico, there is a quiet confidence in the Gilas camp that if the team can get the breaks and shoot well from the outside, there is indeed a chance of beating Argentina in a game which was scheduled to be telecast at 11:00 p.m. on Monday and hopefully come down to the last game in Group B against Senegal.

Reyes said when he congratulated this Greek counterpart Fotis Katsikaris, the Greek coach replied “but your game is dangerous, that’s not basketball” which the Gilas coach didn’t take too kindly. And when team manager Aboy Castro confronted the coach Greek’s 7’1” center Glannis Bourousis who had earlier shoved Tenorio also put a hand on the team manager which is forbidden under FIBA rules.

Reyes said the Greeks “were so frustrated because they couldn’t put us away and we had a chance.” He said they “keyed in on Jeff and defended him very well” pointing out that so far “we didn’t have our shooters all hit at the same time.”

He was full of praise for Fajardo who was chosen by the TV5 panel as “Player of the Game” and noted “he’s truly fighting after I put him on notice” at the end of the tune-up games that he had to battle the big men of opposing teams. He also commended the remarkable attitude of Pingris who “is battling players who are much taller.” Fajardo scored 10 points and pulled down 7 rebounds although he played only a total of around 10 minutes.

Former PBA player Ali Peek who was on the television panel said Gilas Pilpinas “showed a lot of fight” against top teams in the world and added, “at some point we are  going to find a way to win games.”

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