Even Germany’s national basketball coach Gordon Herbert described Latvia, opponents in the quarterfinals of the Basketball World Cup, as a “big surprise”. The team recently defeated top nations in rows.
After the outstanding tournament performances at the Basketball World Cup so far, Germany is the clear favorite going into the quarter-finals on Wednesday (September 6th, 2023, from 10.45 live in the ticker and audio stream) against Latvia. But the Balts have proven time and again in the past how comfortable they are in the role of outsider and how dangerous they are for big nations. Germany would not be the first medal contender the Latvians bring down.
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Spain and France eliminated
In the preliminary round, the team already defeated France, who subsequently missed out on progressing, in the intermediate round Latvia ensured another elimination of a big favorite with a win against Spain. What’s special: Latvia won both games thanks to an outstanding last quarter – against France it was 88:86 and 26:12 in the final section, against Spain it was 74:69 and 27:11. The DBB team will never be able to be sure because of this strength in the last quarter.
Germany also emphasized that it had been warned. “This is a very dangerous team that plays great together and has a lot of good throwers,” said co-captain Johannes Voigtmann. DBB coach Gordon Herbert described Latvia as “the big surprise of the tournament, but they play basketball very, very well.”
Also successful without Porzingis
But is the Germany opponent really a “big surprise”? The team of Italian coach Luca Banchi made people sit up and take notice in the World Cup qualifiers. Despite a strong group, Latvia have won nine games out of ten, beating Greece and Turkey twice each and also prevailed after the only defeat in the second leg against Serbia, who are already in the semi-finals at the World Cup. And at the World Cup they have only lost against the strong Canadians.
Arguably what keeps Latvia underdogs despite consistently outstanding results is the World Cup squad. Davis Bertans of the Oklahoma City Thunder is the only pro from the NBA, superstar Kristaps Porzingis (Boston Celtics) is missing with a heel injury. But that’s part of the recipe for success. “It really doesn’t matter to us who is the best pitcher and who throws the most shots. We’ll just let the game come to us and do what the other team allows,” said Bertans before the duel against Germany.
Immediately successful at the World Cup premiere
The 30-year-old is Latvia’s top scorer with 13.4 points per game, but his tally is also an expression of the team’s versatility. Four other players score double digits on average, with Germany there are only three players with Dennis Schröder (19.8), Moritz Wagner (13) and Daniel Theis (11). “The recipe is: stick together, work hard and play together,” said Banchi.
The coach also stressed: “Every day we enter the gym with the desire to prove that we belong at this level.” The Latvians have managed to do that so far and they want to take the next step against Germany. It would be the greatest success of the current generation, who finished fifth at the 2017 European Championship, when they took part in the World Cup for the first time. They were also able to celebrate a European Championship title, but that was 88 years ago.
Banchi calls for “modesty”
The euphoria was correspondingly high after the game against France. But Banchi didn’t like that at all. “We had too many people around, talking and texting. This is the time for fake friends. It’s important not to lose our identity and our humility,” said the Latvian coach. For the 58-year-old, the World Cup is a time “to be with people I really love and like.” And who should now provide the next supposed surprise against Germany.
