The balance of the national teams of Latvia and Georgia in official tournaments is tied 2-2, but Latvians have won two in six test matches. In the last meeting in August last year, Latvia won 82:57.
Head coach Luka Banki has included eight players who competed in the World Cup last year in the Latvian national team for the qualification tournament. Eight years ago, Jānis Strēlnieks, Dairis Bertāns, Jānis Timma and Mareks Mejeris took part in the Olympic qualification tournament.
On the other hand, in the ranks of the Georgian national team is Tornike Shengelija, who was the leader of Bologna “Virtus” led by Banki last season and scored an average of 14.5 points in each match in the Euroleague, while he stood out with an average of 13.8 points in the Italian Serie A. The Georgian national team also includes representatives of the National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, Goga Bitadze and Aleksandrs Mamukelasvili, who played effectively in the World Cup last year.
Before the match between Latvia and Georgia, Brazil and Montenegro, the other teams of the group, will meet there at “Arena Riga” at 3:30 p.m.
Georgia and the Philippines will be opponents of the Latvian national team in the qualifying tournament group of the Olympic Games, while Brazil, Cameroon and Montenegro will play in the second group.
Latvian basketball players will play the second group game on July 3rd and will face the Philippine team at 19:00.
The two best teams of the group will play against one of the best teams of Group B (Brazil, Montenegro and Cameroon) in the semi-finals on July 6. The winners of the semi-final matches will fight for the only ticket to Paris on Sunday, July 7.
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Latvian basketball players defeated the Egyptian national team 84:63 in the two test games held in Arena Riga, but lost to Finland 84:90 in Tampere.
Lukas Banki will be assisted by coaches Jānis Gailītis and Artūrs Visockis-Rubenis in Riga.
Georgian basketball team:
- Rati Andronikashvili (Casademont of Zaragoza, Spain)
- Alexander Mamukelasvili (San Antonio Spurs, NBA)
- Kahabers Jintčaradze (“Al Rayyan”, Katara)
- Duda Sanadze (Pakša “Atomeromu SE”, Hungary)
- Giorgi Korsantia (“Quotes 2010”)
- Giorgi Ochhikidze (“Kutaisi 2010”)
- Alexander Phevadze (Tbilisi TSU)
- Tornice Shengelia (Bologna “Virtus”, Italy)
- Luka Maziashvili, Ilya Londaridze (both – “Kavkasia”)
- Joe Thomason (Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel)
- Goga Bitadze (Orlando Magic, NBA)
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2024-07-02 02:45:31
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