by Jim Slater
ATHENS, Aug 17 (AFP) - Sick, injured and reeling from a humiliating loss, the United States basketball team struggled past Greece 77-71 here Tuesday in an Olympic preliminary-round game that signaled more difficulties to come.
Allen Iverson scored a team-high 17 points despite a fractured right thumb and Lamar Odom, awake all night fighting stomach pain, made the key defensive play allowing the US National Basketball Association stars to escape defeat.
The American millionaires were humbled by a 92-73 loss Sunday to Puerto Rico - the first Olympic loss by US NBA teams in 25 games and only the third US men's loss in 112 starts.
"We played with a lot more energy than we did against Puerto Rico," US coach Larry Brown said. "That was the difference."
In an emotional, physical matchup against a loudly backed home side, the Americans barely escaped another humiliation.
"We had a chance to bury them," Brown said. "We're trying to entertain rather than just play. We have to do away with that or we're going to be in serious trouble."
Antonios Fotsis, who scored a game-high 22 points, and Michail Kakiouzis sank 3-pointers in an 8-0 Greek run the pulled the Games hosts within 62-61 with 6:15 remaining.
US center Tim Duncan, who scored 14 points, fouled out with 3:52 remaining and his team clinging to a 67-63 lead.
"Timmy had some difficult no-calls against him but we hung in," Brown said. "You see how the game gets called. Things are so unpredictable. Other teams accept it a lot better than our team."
Stephon Marbury's driving layup put the US up 71-63 but Kakiouzis sank another 3-pointer, Fotsis hit a jumper before fouling out and Nik Chatzivrettas sank a 3-pointer to pull Greece within 75-71 with 28 seconds to play.
"We didn't go onto the court with fear," Greek coach Panagiotis Giannakis said. "My boys had the courage to keep coming back until the end."
Dimitris Papanikolaou had an inside shot but ill Odom forced a bad shot and deflected the ball, then sank two final free throws as the US held on for the victory.
"I was up all night with pretty extreme stomach pain. My doctor came to me at five in the morning," Odom said. "I'm really dehydrated. I have to keep a lot of water in me. My energy level was low.
"But these are the Olympics. There's no time to feel bad."
While leading most of the way, the Americans could not pull away from a stubborn Greek squad, leading only 37-31 at half-time and 57-53 entering the fourth quarter.
LeBron James and Shawn Marion scored to boost the US edge to 61-53 but the Americans went nearly three minutes without another field goal while Greek sharpshooters found their range.
Already nursing bruised egos, the US team was physically hurting as well, with co-captain Iverson starting despite a wrap around his broken thumb, first hurt in a team practice three weeks ago and reinjured in the Puerto Rico loss.
A screaming, flag-waving sellout crowd of 12,000 boisterous Greek fans filled Helliniko arena, hailing their heros while booing the Americans so lustfully upon introductions that US player names could barely be heard.
Shrill whistles and boos erupted every second a US player touched the ball, making Helliniko just plain Hell on the visitors from basketball's birthplace.
"We really did think we could win the game," said Greek guard Theodoros Papaloukas. "The crowd was really helpful."
Lithuania grabbed the lead in the US group at 2-0 by beating giant killer Puerto Rico 98-90 while Australia joined the US and Greece at 1-1 by downing winless Angola 83-59.
Spain beat Argentina 87-76 to lead the other preliminary round group, which also saw China beat New Zealand 69-62 and world champion Serbia and Montenegro edged Italy 74-72.