Latvia players rate win over Spain, Luca Banchi wants to avoid fake friends / News - Basketnews.com

Davis Bertans, Arturs Zagars, Rodions Kurucs and coach Luca Banchi weighed in on Latvia's win over Spain that might vault them into the World Cup quarter-finals.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Latvia racked up another big win in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, downing reigning champs Spain 79-74.

Player of the Game EFF 21 Rodions Kurucs Points 13 Accuracy 5-8 Rebounds 8 Assists 2

Right now (before Canada faces Brazil), three teams have three wins apiece in the group: Canada (3-0), Spain (3-1) and Latvia (3-1). If Canada beat Brazil, Latvia will either need to beat Brazil to advance to the quarter-finals or expect Canada to beat Spain on Sunday.

If two or more teams have the same win-loss balance in the group, the clashes between those involved will decide the classification. The criteria applied are:

i) Balance of victories-losses among those involved

ii) Greater difference in points scored and conceded in the games played between those involved

iii) Best offense (total) in the games of the teams involved

iv) Greater difference in points scored and conceded in all the games in that group

v) Highest score (total) of all the games in that group

Hence, Latvia have the upper hand over Spain, since they prevailed in dramatic fashion on Friday. For the Baltic side, that was their second triumph over one of the World Cup favorites, after their historic premiere against France. For Davis Bertans, the undisputed leader of the squad after Kristaps Porzingis' injury, Latvia's biggest win ever remains the one against Les Bleus.

"That game put us in a situation we'd never been before," he said in the postgame presser. "If we're not able to come away with a win against Brazil, this win won't matter that much."

"Emotion-wise, the biggest win was against France," forward Rodions Kurucs concurred. "That was the first one, and now we're a bit calmer because we have to go to the next one, which is Brazil. But it's still a big win for us."

Latvia / Schedule

France Latvia86-88 Canada Latvia101-75 Spain Latvia69-74 Brazil LatviaSun09:45

Coach Luca Banchi admitted that being an underdog in such a tough group and suffering so many injuries, put Latvia in a position where they didn't have anything to lose.

"Every day, we step into the gym with the desire to prove that we belong at this level," the Italian tactician said and gave out a warning.

"So, it's important not to lose our identity and our humility. Now it's a risky moment. After France, we had too many people around, talking, texting... This is a time for fake friends. For me, I'm 58, it's time to stay around people that I really love and like."

Banchi added that he hopes his players will approach the next games with the same will and desire as they did at the beginning of the World Cup campaign.

"In the last 20 games, every night was like that. Same shit. The recipe is staying together, working hard and playing together," he stressed.

Point guard Arturs Zagars has made a big step-up in this tournament, being the starting point guard on a team that has already surpassed expectations. Zagars, 23, finished last season with Nevezys in Lithuania and is now "jobless," as he told BasketNews in the mixed zone.

But regardless of what his professional future holds, for Zagars, the only thing that counts right now is the present with Latvia.

"Probably, I'm not going to realize what has happened until after I go home after the tournament," he said. "Right now, I'm excited and happy to keep going. We're on a great run. So, we just have to keep building up the confidence we have.

The most important thing is that we have 2.000-2.500 people behind us, supporting us no matter what. Against Canada, we were down by 20 and they were still chanting Latvia all the way. That's a huge boost."

Latvia were indeed struggling in the first 20 minutes, going 17% from beyond the arc. But Spain weren't much better either and that helped Banchi's squad to stay in the game. When Spain geared up in the third quarter, boosted by Rudy Fernandez's buzzer-beating and contested 3-point shot, Latvia came back.

If it hadn't been for Kristers Zoriks, who scored eight points in less than three minutes in the fourth quarter, the comeback wouldn't have been possible. Zagars acknowledged his teammate's contribution in an even game.

"Kristers made two huge threes in a row and that gave us a second breath. We're a young backcourt. It's a huge deal for us and we have a great chance to put Latvia's name on the map. There are NBA and EuroLeague athletes here. So, it's a great stage to prove that we're not afraid of anybody, but we still respect everybody."

The elements that Banchi and Zagars mentioned have rendered some basic team deficiencies, like the lack of size, almost redundant.

"We have a defensive mindset. We've proven to the whole world that we can play good defense against any team and compete," Rodions Kurucs said. "We help each other and don't need size. We just need to play together and play tough."

Zagars pointed out that he needs to be more consistent at times. Being one of the team's leaders without having the experience at the top level to back it up can be tricky.

"Maybe we had a lot of turnovers and bad runs. Shooting is one thing, but at certain points, I may not have made the right decisions, attacking too fast or whatever. But the team didn't give up when we were down by 12 (42-54)," he argued.

'Coming here, with Kristaps being out, we knew that we can be a really dangerous team in the sense that we're really unpredictable," Bertans continued.

"And we don't care about who's going to be the top scorer or who's going to take the most shots. We have different players going off in each game. That makes it harder for other teams to prepare games against us."

Kristaps Porzingis was already waiting in the locker room.

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