Gilas Pilipinas under pressure after 2nd defeat by Greece

SEVILLE, Spain: Gilas Pilipinas ran into a solid Greek wall on Sunday night and was driven on cliff’s edge in the Fiba World Cup.
Greece used its huge advantage in size and heft to the hilt, controlling the game early and never letting the Filipinos get into a rhythm as it grabbed a share of Group A lead after an 82-70 decision at the Centro Deportivo San Pablo in this laid-back province.
It was the second straight loss for the courageous Filipinos, who would now need to win at least two of their remaining three games in order to have a shot at advancing to the KO stages.
The victory was the second straight for the Greeks, the fifth-ranked team in the world which claimed a momentary tie with Croatia, which posted a 90-85 upset of world No. 3 Argentina in an earlier match.
Gilas also tumbled, 81-78, in overtime against the Croats on Saturday and the Filipinos again stayed on the heels of the Greeks only to fall short yet again.
Andray Blatche led the Filipinos with 21 points and 14 rebounds despite playing hurt, and his status has been listed as day-to-day by coaching staff which is now in a quandary on whether to rest him against Argentina on Monday.
Coach Chot Reyes is toying with the idea of letting Blatche’s aching right knee heal since the Filipinos will be having a day-off on Tuesday. That way, Reyes said, he could have Blatche near 100% for their last two games.
Puerto Rico also reeled to its second straight defeat, 75-82, against Senegal, which rose to 1-1.
Incidentally, those two countries will be the Philippines last foes and if the Filipinos don’t get past the Argentines Monday afternoon, they would have to beat both the Puerto Ricans and the Senegalese, in that order.
“If anyone had told me that we would be sticking close to the Greeks before this tournament then I would have been very happy,” Reyes told reporters. “Sure, I am crushed by the loss, but I am very happy with the effort the players gave.”
The Filipinos couldn’t put a dent on the Greek defense all game long.
After being down by just 7-8 early, the Filipinos lapsed into a maze of forced errors and yielded 10 unanswered points. It was all Greece from there as it built leads of as many as 17 points midway through the third period.
The best that the Philippines could do was come within nine twice, but Greece had an answer each time and quelled all of the rallies that the Filipinos put up.
Color developed near the end of the game and the outcome already decided and both teams had to be separated at midcourt after Reyes and some of his players got into a shouting match with Greek coaches and 7-foot center Giannis Bouroussis.
Reyes and the rest of the team were offended by Greece’s action of making baskets even with just seconds remaining and the Filipinos not having a chance to catch up.
And when Reyes informed Greek coach Fotis Katsikaris, he said he was insulted by the latter for saying that the Filipinos play dirty.
Only June Mar Fajardo was able to finish in twin digits for the Philippines with 10, all of them coming when he spelled Blatche, who played despite a hurting right knee caused by tendinitis.
Georgios Printezis paced the Greeks with 25, mostly on unorthodox shots inside the paint. He was left alone a number of times because the Filipino defense concentrated on the enemy’s big men.