The biggest dark horse of this men's basketball World Cup is the little-known Latvia, who achieved a historic fifth place in the absence of the core of the team, Porzinis, and beat Lithuania by 35 points in the final qualifying match, all thanks to Latvia's European team basketball to the extreme.
In the qualifying match with Lithuania for fifth place, the Latvian men's basketball team was a soldier, shooting 35 of 69 from the field, 34 of which were 35 from the field and 16 of 32 from three-pointers, shooting 50%, and Latvia led Lithuania by 30 points in just two and a half quarters.
The brightest star of the game is guard Zagas, who cut down 4 points, 6 rebounds, 17 assists, 1 steal and 0 turnovers in 27 minutes of playing time, including 17 assists that also accounted for half of Latvia's total assists, it can be said that Zagas revitalized the team with only one person. At the same time, Zagas's 17 assists also broke the record of 15 assists held by Kukoc in the history of the basketball World Cup, which can be called Kidd's possession! I believe that after the end of this World Cup, many NBA teams will throw olive branches to Zagas, and Bertans frankly said that Zagas definitely has the ability to play in the NBA.
At the same time, Zagas and the Latvian men's basketball team also made three history, the first in the World Cup first place in the fifth place, the second in the entire World Cup series three-point shooting in 94 years, the third in the 29th place before the start of the World Cup, defeating France, Spain, Italy and Lithuania in a row. Latvia's strength before the World Cup was evaluated even lower than that of the Chinese men's basketball team, but they dared to fight in the World Cup, and no one was daunted! Although the Chinese team cannot compare with Latvia in terms of strategy and tactics and individual basketball skills, the Chinese team should learn how to play and the desire to win!