When a team has a long time between matches in a competition, the age-old question always arises: is this good or bad? Flamengo's basketball players will only have the answer on February 26th, when they host Joinville at HSBC Arena for the third game of the second round of the 2009-2010 Novo Basquete Brasil season. Until then, they'll be training hard and analyzing both sides of the same coin.

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For point guard Fred, having around 20 days of preparation between two rounds could be good for two reasons: coach Paulo Chupeta will have plenty of time to fine-tune the team's tactics and practice new plays, and, of course, the medical department will be able to recover injured players so they can return to action against Joinville.

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"It's important to have more time to work. It's like an offseason, where the team will have time to improve their physical fitness and fine-tune some tactical details. It will also be a good time to recover key players, like Coloneze and Dedé," he analyzed.

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However, there's also a downside to the break. The number 9 recalls that Flamengo was on a great run in the New Basketball Brazil season—six wins in its last seven games. And with this break, the team, even training, will be lacking a bit in terms of game rhythm in the first matches after returning to the court.

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"There are two sides to the coin, right? The team was doing very well, we only lost one game in the last seven, and now we're going to break our streak a little, the rhythm the team was in... But, the important thing is to work to come back strong against Joinville," he concluded.