The Latvian basketball team will play the second and last test match against Finland tonight in Tampere before the qualification tournament for the Olympic Games, which will take place next week in Riga.
Hard to switch
Latvian basketball players beat Egypt 84:63 in the first test at Arena Riga. Rodions Kurucs and Rolands Šmits, whose club season ended in mid-June and have micro-injuries, remained on the sidelines. It is expected that both will be able to go on the field against Finland.
Against Egypt, a wave-like performance, dull defense and poor shooting accuracy at the beginning, but after the breakthrough in the third quarter, the intrigue did not return. Throwing all the shots (3p 3/3, 2p 1/1, 1p 3/3), Jānis Strēlnieks, who played the first game for the national team after a year and a half break, collected 14 points, Artūrs Strautiņš added 13, and Rihard Lomaž added 11.
“What else could you expect in the beginning?” Strelnieku was not surprised that in the first quarter the rivals put the ball in the basket four times from above. “We haven’t practiced much together, the tournament is very specific with a short preparation. Although we know each other, it takes time, because everyone plays different basketball in the club. It’s not so easy to switch, there’s still a week left. We need to talk more, in defense it’s the main thing. For Egypt parupjs style of play, it is in the blood that you have to play aggressively like in “street ball”. It will be no different against the Georgians. The main thing is to help the team with experience. Let’s try to keep it going .”
He caught his breath
The head coach of the Latvian national team, Luka Banki, divided the playing time similarly among the 13 registered players. “Several have not had games for a long time, trainings have taken energy. Egypt did not have much skill, but good energy, physicality, against which we were weak in the first 20 minutes, but later we reacted well,” said the Italian specialist. “There was a lack of stability. We were not sharp enough from the long-throw line, also in passing, in defense. In some moments we found the rhythm. The positive thing is that we did not get injured, the condition is still insufficient, but there is a lot of contact, it is risky.”
You can’t expect the team to be 100 percent ready in less than a week. “We have to be realistic, we can’t be perfect, but the team will be ready. The players have a different physical condition, the quality of our basketball is not as usual, but there is still one test match and several training sessions,” Banki maintains confidence.
Dāvis Bertāns got angry at one of the Egyptian basketball players in the third quarter. “An elbow hit him in the stomach so that he took his breath away a little, he had to give the message that he couldn’t do it, everyone should try to be a little careful in the test match,” he explained the change of words. The game against Egypt was a good warm-up for the official matches. Davis hit two out of ten three-pointers, he was said to be rusty after a break of more than two months, but felt better towards the end. “In the second half, the task was to play more aggressively in defense so that their outside players don’t get through the easy passes so easily. Their defense allowed us to shoot three-pointers more freely, at first we were excited about it, but in the second we started to press down more. I wouldn’t say that we played well in defense, rather the opponents were not so talented in attack. A stronger team would throw more, so we have to work hard to be ready,” emphasized Dāvis Bertāns.
Latvia will open the qualification on July 2 against Georgia, a day later against the Philippines. The two best teams will advance to the semi-finals.
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2024-06-27 21:04:33
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