JAKARTA (Indonesia) – Latvia showed remarkable resilience in an excellent fourth quarter comeback against Spain to win 74-69 and create confusion in Group L. It was a defensive-minded battle from the very first minutes of the game, with Latvia battling their hearts out just to maintain realistic chances of advancing to the Quarter-Finals with a stunning fightback.
Just when it seemed like Latvia were done, they erased an 11-point lead for Spain within less than five minutes of the fourth quarter and then got up 65-63. They put an exclamation mark on their brilliant run with a three-pointer by Davis Bertans and a smooth hook from Rodions Kurucs who put them up 70-65. It proved to be too much for Spain to recover.Not only did he hit that clutch three-pointer, but Davis Bertans also had 16 points for the game, 3 rebounds and a lengthy 33:59 minutes on the court, the highest mark on his team.
Latvia have done the unthinkable in their debut appearance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup – beating both France and Spain.Just under a year ago, those two sides were competing in the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Final – now both have been beaten by a team that hadn’t even qualified for that tournament and are playing on the global stage for the first time. Latvia now look forward to Sunday when they could make history in a game against Brazil. At this point, a lot still depends on whatever happens in the other Group L games, yet the Latvians have a decent shot at their first ever Quarter-Finals in their World Cup debut.Spain received a decent blow, however, still can control their own destiny against Canada, given the 26-point deficit that Latvia have taken with them from their loss against the Maple nation.
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