Sergio Scariolo stated in a talk with LA RAZÓN before the World Cup: “Latvia is a team that plays basketball very well and despite the loss of Porzingis you have to be careful with them.” He included the Latvians as one of the teams to watch beyond the classic favorites and the Italian, once again, nailed it. Latvia has beaten France 86-88 and has left the Olympic and European runners-up out of the second phase. France will not be among the best and will now have to fight between positions 17 to 32. Seeing is believing.
In Group H, the one that meets the Spanish group in the second phase, there are Canada, France, Latvia and Lebanon. The Middle East team was the only sideline before the tournament began. The results have only confirmed it. They fell by 39 points on the first day against Latvia (109-70) and by 55 against Canada (73-128). So far everything normal. The defeat of France against Canada in the first day (95-65) revealed that something was not going well in the Gauls.
They played to be or not to be in the championship against a Latvia in which, a few days before the start of the World Cup, the withdrawal of Kristaps Porzingis was announced. The absence of the Celtics player forced several players from the rest of the squad (Zagars, Davis Bertans or Smits) to step forward and boy have they given it. All in all, France reached the last quarter with a comfortable lead (74-62), but then came the debacle with a 12-26 run. Fournier (27 points) and Yabusele (18) lost their aim and Gobert showed once again that he is far from being a decisive player in FIBA basketball. Latvia was closing differences and between Zagars, Bertans and Smits caused the great surprise of the championship. Sylvain Francisco had a triple to avoid the debacle, but missed. France is out of the World Cup, better for Spain.
In Group A, Italy fell more clearly than the score says against the Dominican Republic. And in E, the duel between two of the medal candidates, Australia and Germany, ended in victory for the Germans thanks to Schroeder’s 30 points.
Results: Italy, 82-Dominican Republic, 87; Australia, 82-Germany, 85; Montenegro, 89-Egypt, 74; Lebanon, 73-Canada, 128; Philippines, 70-Angola, 80; Japan, 98-Finland, 88; Lithuania, 96-Mexico, 66 and France, 86-Latvia, 88.
2023-08-27 20:39:20
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