• The “Big3” league made its debut in 2017, but this season it has attracted much more interest from Latvians, as the league also plays ours – Kārlis Pauls Lasmanis, representing the “Alians” team, whose captain is the Serbian Dušans Bulut, known until recently as the best 3×3 basketball player in the world.
• This is the most successful season for the “Aliens” team, at one point the team was even the leader of the entire league. At the end of the regular season, a couple of losses delayed aliens to the fourth place, but that was enough to enter the semi-finals and participate in the further fight for the championship title.
• Sunday, at 23:00 “Aliens” will compete for a place in the grand final with the team “Trilogy”, which ranked first in the regular season with six wins in eight games and aims to defend the championship title won last year. It’s true that one of the two losses for this team was caused by “Aliens” (50:41), with Deshaun Stevens scoring 19 points and grabbing 19 rebounds, but Lasmanis excelling with 13 points and the same number of rebounds.
• The best-known player in “Trilogy” ranks is the one who played 14 seasons in the NBA Amir Johnsonbut clearly the leader of the attack is the one who played for Tallinn “Kalev/Cramo”. Aizea Brisko and who played five seasons in the NBA, as well as playing in China and Europe Earl Clarkewho score an average of 19.1 and 15.4 points respectively. It is difficult to name a definite leader in the “Aliens” team, but the offensive game is mostly formed around Dušan Bulut (13.7 pts) and Deshaun Stevens (14.0 pts).
• Karl Paul Lasmanis is the team’s third leading scorer so far in his debut season with an average of 10.8 points, as well as the second best passer on the team with 2.5 assists. If you look in the context of all players in the league, former NBA star Joe Johnson is just a little ahead of him in terms of productivity, and right behind him is the experienced Brazilian, NBA champion (2015, 2022 (as an assistant coach)) and the league’s best reserve (2007) Leonardo Barbosa. Also, the Latvian is the 14th best passer in the league, but has not made a single four-point shot, which is one of the league’s trademarks.
• Before the playoffs, Lasmanis did not hide his joys about entering the playoffs, where he optimistically sees the possibility of success. “We have already met them during the season, the opponent is familiar. I can see that we have many advantages against this team, but everything can happen in one game, so it is important to come to the match with the right attitude and mood.”
• After the first semi-final match, teams “Power” and “3 Headed Monsters” will enter the field, fighting for the second ticket to the final. The champions of this season’s “Big3” league will be determined on August 21 in Atlanta. It will be possible to follow the semi-finals and the final of the league on the Go3 platform.
