ARG - Ginóbili welcomes rest for Argentina, oldest team in competition

MAR DEL PLATA (FIBA Americas Championship) - Despite being the most talented and biggest title-contender of FIBA Americas, Argentina are the oldest team in the whole tournament.

Manu Ginóbili, Luis Scola and Co. average 31,9 years followed by Puerto Rico (27.7) and Panama (27.6).

"This is a tournament of 10 games in 12 days and we are not exactly the youngest team," said Manu Ginóbili, who made his national team debut in 1998.

Ginóbili expects Argentina to have fresh legs for the second part of the tournament, starting next Monday with the Quarterfinal group and the semifinals that give two Olympic spots.

After two comfortable wins, Ginóbili expressed his happiness of having accumulated just 37 minutes in both games.

"Our youngest players are (Juan) Gutiérrez, who is 27, and Delfino, 29. For the time being we are fine because we took every chance we had to thrash our opposition," added the San Antonio Spurs player. "I'm happy to get rested and to avoid suffering in the last minutes, which is something that consumes a team both physically and mentally."

Luis Scola gives experience the credit.

"Experience helps against minor teams," said the 31-year old centre.

Asked on how they managed to get easy wins Scola said Argentina have very intelligent players. He added "We know that if we play seriously, we can be in better condition the following day."

Argentina will have Thursday off and will play Puerto Rico on Friday and Panama on Saturday.

FIBA