RIO DE JANEIRO (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Argentina veteran Manu Ginobili has been in the wars with the national team over the years.

In 2004, the San Antonio Spurs great and his teammates captured the gold medal at the Athens Games. They finished third four years later in Beijing and were semi-finalists in 2012. To get a top-three spot in 2016, Argentina are going to have to show the sort of fight on defense and precision on offense they displayed in Tuesday's 90-82 victory over Croatia.

If the fans continue to fill the Carioca Arena 1 to sing their songs and root for Argentina, it's going to make a big difference. Ginobili spoke after Tuesday's win.

So many people believe this team is all about the veterans but the younger players showed against Croatia they can play, too. Argentina may be better than people thought.
Manu Ginobili: They are doing a great job. Both point guards (Facundo Campazzo, Nicolas Laprovittola) are playing at a high level. (Patricio) Garino is playing with such an intensity that he's changing games on the defensive side. Today (Roberto) Acuna, who barely played in Game 1, was huge in those six, seven minutes that he played. The coach trusted him to start the third quarter and it worked out great. (Gabriel) Deck played huge minutes, too, so it's great to see the young guys contribute like that, make us so much better.

How important is that atmosphere? Is it something the players of Argentina really feed off?
Manu Ginobili:"For sure. It's incredible to be out there. Lots of fun. It's helps you bring that intensity, heart and be even more passionate so for sure, they help us. Today was even better than the day (game) before so we are very lucky to have them (fans) on our side."

Can you talk about the defense of Argentina in this win?
Manu Ginobili: The defense was huge today. They couldn't score. In the fourth quarter they got away from us a little bit, when they started to play five smalls - (Dario) Saric is not that small. We got in trouble with their pressure, with their flexibility, but for three quarters our defense was outstanding. We're very happy with that and we've got to pick that up because without that, it's going to be uphill what's coming.