Blatche doubtful against Argentina

SEVILLE, Spain – With a bruised right knee, Andray Blatche’s status against Argentina Monday (early Tuesday morning in Manila) is a game-time decision for coach Chot Reyes.

For the Gilas bench chieftain, the question is whether to rest Blatche against Argentina and save him for Puerto Rico and Senegal or to go hard with whatever they have.

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“Right now I don’t know what the answer is,” said Reyes moments after the Gilas-Greece game that Blatche played limping.

“He’s already battling tendinitis (going to the tourney). And against Croatia, he had a strong drive where he twisted a bit his knee. His problem now is that he’s feeling pain when he gets bumped,” said Reyes.

“But he’s taking it. Hopefully, we can finish the tournament. Pinagiisipan lang namin totodo ba, pupukpok ba? Or he gets a two-day rest before Puerto Rico and Senegal,” Reyes added.

Reyes said he’s taking into consideration the huge Filipino crowd that’s following their games.

“You can see the crowd. Paano ka mag o-off day?” said Reyes.

“To be very honest, we’re thinking of playing 2-3 zone the whole game (against Greece) and put up token resistance. But in all conscience, we couldn’t do it with all the fans here,” Reyes added.

They had that in mind all game long but abandoned with Blatche, himself, ready to go hard all the way through.

“We talked about it and I thought about it long and hard. In the end, I don’t think I can live with myself if we do that,” Reyes said.

“I asked the players, looked in their eyes in the last five minutes. The players were saying: ‘last five minutes, last minutes,’ including Andray,” Reyes also said. “That’s just the kind of spirit that we have. The spirit that we have and the way we play will not allow us to slacken off.”

Blatche got a warm applause from the crowd when he was finally rested by Reyes with 1:38 left to play and Gilas trailing 63-76.

The NBA free agent played through pain for 33 minutes, bravely battling the Greek giants and their double-teaming defense.

“That might be a foolish thing. But who we are? From the start, we’re foolish enough to dream that we can compete with this team. Just be foolish all the way,” Reyes pointed out.