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Anigua: We'll assess the situation and decide who will play

The Dominican selector is aware he has no chance of beating USA, so he is slowly focusing on the last match of the group, thinking of ways to rest his tired players in this match.

The Dominican Republic achieved a great success yesterday by beating Finland. This puts Orlando Antigua's players a step away from advancing to the second round, which they could achieve even by losing their two remaining matches. What impressed everyone once again was the great team defense the Dominican team have been presenting since the tournament started, which got them their two victories.

- There are still things which we could improve, but overall I'm delighted to have witnessed such a performance by my team. Everyone back home is happy with this result as well, but we have to keep our feet on the ground.

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There is no doubt the USA team will put them there, firmly, as they did in the friendly match they played in August, when USA marched through with 105-62. It is therefore no wonder that selector Antigua is already considering resting his main players for the last match in the group stage against Turkey:

- We'll assess the health status and fatigue of all the players and then make a decision. Vargas suffered a minor injury today, so we'll decide if he plays prior to the game itself.

A smart an logical move would be to rest both Vargas and the other members of the team, as playing against USA means zero chance of getting any points, and at this moment it doesn't matter if they lose by 10 or 60 points. The Dominican Republic cannot count on their excellent defense in this match either, as there is simply no defense against the USA team, and this is a match that's already booked as lost.

Yesterday we had the chance to watch one more casual edition by the USA team. Although they played against New Zealand, who rotated the entire 12 man roster, the Americans just could not find their rhythm and kept making mistakes. The final tally was 16 turnovers, 12 missed free throws and an atypically low shooting percentage of 50%, but they still managed to win by 30 points. Talk about domination...

- This may not have been an ideal game, but it was certainly useful, as we felt how it feels to play against an atypical team. Things were especially tough for the tall players, who had to play defense at the three point line since everyone on their team could hit a three-pointer - commented Coach K after the game.

Once again the best players on the USA team were centers Davis and Faried, who are making the best of the game time they got so far in this tournament. Krzyzewski experimented with Derrick Rose as a starter in the second half yesterday, obviously testing his form for strong matches, but he did not perform as desired. Curry and particularly Irving are currently doing much better, and Coach K will have to do a lot more work to find the ideal starting five. Luckily the match against Spain is still far away.

Today's match against the Dominican Republic was not spoken of much, the only real danger being injuries as the opponents are not a threat at all. The only issue is motivation, and whether the Americans will have enough of it to bring the match to the +50 win they achieved in the preparation period.