On September 7, Beijing time, Latvia and Italy played the World Cup qualifying match, and their overall fitness in the first quarter was very bad, resulting in the offensive end not opening. Thankfully, Latvia started to pick up after the start of the second quarter, which also allowed them to take the lead at halftime. Latvia continued to extend the score in the second half to beat Italy 87-82 and fight for fifth place in the next round.
Today Latvian inside and outside all opened fire, making it difficult for Italy to limit. When Italy defends the outside, Latvia can pass inside and finish very consistently. At the same time, with the inside line, Latvia's three-point shooting percentage is still very terrifying. 15 of 31 in the game, such an efficiency is already very scary. And Latvia shot 35 of 59 from the field in total, all of which maintained strong stability.
Glazulis completely dominated the arena today. As long as a teammate gives the basket and Glazulis occupies a vantage point, then he can score. Coupled with a 2-of-2 shooting percentage on the outside, all fired inside and outside, and also hit a ball that killed the game. Glazulis scored 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting, a play that Italy simply could not limit.
Bertans is still awakening at the end of the season. In the last game, Bertans was an unsolvable performance, basically shooting to score. The first three quarters of Bertans were still relatively silent today, but he scored two consecutive three-pointers in the final quarter to help the team continue to maintain the advantage of the score. However, Bertans still had some upper problems, but fortunately the coaching staff was able to contain his emotions and the team still won.
At the same time, Thaler, Smith, Zagar and Kurus are all maintaining their output, helping the team stabilize the shooting percentage from the outside.
In contrast, Italy, their starting four scored double-doubles, especially D'Artome and Melli, and the two of them scored consecutive points in the final moments, bringing the team from double digits behind to two points behind. D'Artome scored 20 points in the game, and he was the most consistent point for the team. However, there are not as many players who can stand up as Latvia, so they are defeated.