Brazil 101, Venezuela 75

What is the importance of Brazil's depth - playing 10 - 12 players and being comfortable with all of them on the court?
I think Brazil is here to win the Gold medal so we're very conscious of what we need to do in every game. It's fundamental for us to win every game but also to build the team because we still have some work to do. There will be a point where a win means Olympics and a loss means not going. When that moment comes, we need to make sure all of our twelve players are in the best possible condition. This tournament is very long, a lot of games in 12 days, so all players must perform well every day. It's normal for players to have their good and bad days, so Brazil's advantage is that we can rotate our players.

[Question inaudible]
More than resting the team it's a matter of activating the players that have the necessary qualities for that particular game and resting others. The head coach has to work with that, and obviously when you have twelve good players, you're job is much easier. That's the Brazilian strength. It's also the responsibility of the coaching staff, and mine in particular, to make sure all the players are working for the team, not for individuals. That's why today was a good game for us. The players acted well and played collectively. Our players are not thinking individually, they are thinking collectively. We are all concerned about Brazil winning. Whether it's because of Leandrinho's 30 points yesterday or Machado's 20 today, is not important.

MARCELO MACHADO, BRAZIL
You opened the game very nicely and that gave way to a good performance from the rest of the team. Can you talk a little bit about that?
I think, like coach said, we have a lot of talented players, so we don't have to always have the ball. We can share the ball. Today was a good day for me and that helped the team, but tomorrow may be different and we have the talent to win either way.

NESTOR SALAZAR, VENEZUELA HEAD COACH
Brazil shot extremely well and showed a lot of balance, did that make things a lot more difficult for you during the game?
We played well during the first part of the game. We controlled their shots, but in the second half, that was reversed. We applied the triangle defense in the first two quarters and they weren't adapting well to it. In the second half, we just weren't mentally there. We didn't have the patience we needed to do things and we became anxious. That's what caused what you saw, the unnecessary fouls for example. It's also part of the inexperience of our players, who haven't had international experience.

Romero played well today, but he had to work twice as hard today against Brazil. Do you agree?
Yes. Romero is our most experienced players. We rely on him. He is playing outside of Venezuela. He plays in Europe and is undoubtedly our best player.

HECTOR ROMERO, VENEZUELA
Having played with Brazil and the U.S., what is each of the team's advantage when they play against each other?
I don't think Brazil can defeat the U.S., unless Brazil plays at home. For Brazil to win, Barbosa has to come out and play a great game. The U.S. is more athletic and physical.

Coach was talking about Brazil's defense causing difficulty for you guys, do you agree?
Brazil is a great team; they have a different strategy than ours. They had good picks and played good defense - they're just a good team. Hopefully they'll win - I'm going for them.