Slovenia - Latvia

I fully understand the mass belief in Latvia. Good players and a good coach, great results, Porzingis. Many believed that the stars had converged on this team and they are waiting for the Eurobasket medals. I have a slightly different opinion and I believe that the stars have converged on the Slovenian national team. There are several myths (in my opinion) about the excessive strength of just a strong (no more) Latvian team and generally about this match. I'll try to debunk these myths now.

Myth 1. Latvia - kings of three-point shots. Yes, if you look at the games with the Great Britain, Belgium, Montenegro, then Latvia is really excellent throwing distant with an average percentage in these matches almost 55-60%! But let's be objective until the end - none of these teams have strong defense and understanding in how they need to play against such snipers. I better give an example of those matches where Latvia played against teams that know what to do in defense:

Latvia - Serbia 9 of 23 3-points (38%), Latvia - Russia 4 of 20 3-points (20%), Latvia - Turkey 11 of 28 3-points (39%). Not so great as in matches against mediocre teams.

Myth 2. Kristaps Porzings MVP

Porzy is cool, of course. But he is not centr, which was perfectly demonstrated not by the strongest person in this position (with all my respect for Timofey) - Mozgov, who simply destroyed the young star in 2 quarters. Slovenia has a powerful and experienced Vidmar + long-legged Randolph (and no less mobile than Porzy), which can significantly complicate the life of Kristaps.

Myth 3. Latvia has collected the strongest team in its history.

Perhaps this is true, to some extent. But the jamb is that this team has a very mediocre bench. Judge for yourself, from 22 to 26 minutes play Porzy, the brothers Bertans, Strelnieks and Timma. Blooms is a captain, and even when he does not have a пщщв game (in 95% of cases) he is allowed to play 15-20 minutes. But Grazulis, Skele, Janicenoks, Meyers receive no more than 7-10 minutes, and Smits and Peiners 13-14. And all the players after Blooms - a very mediocre level. And the bench of Slovenia in the face of such players as Cancar, Blazic, Nikolic, Dimec - not only does not concede to them, but also surpasses in the level.

Myth 4. Slovenia - the national team of one player. It's about Goran Dragic. But I will not even paint here - just remember the match against Ukraine, where Goran made 2 out of 12 from the game and scored just 5 points. Did this affect the game of the national team? Well, how to say, won by 25 points...
With players such as Dončić, Prepelic, Vidmar, Randolph, Muric, Goran Dragic can even afford to fail the game. But 2 games in a row, players of this level usually do not fail, so beware of Latvia.

Conclusion: Latvia is not so scary because of the lack of a worthy change of players to start + against the organized teams they do not fly three in such abundance, as it would be desirable to the fans of the team. Slovenia plays calmly and confidently, without sharp changes. They won all 6 matches and when they need it - they have brilliant defense. While the form of their leaders, the number of players who can play stable and the level of these players allows me to believe that it is Slovenia who will play in the semifinals with Spain at the top of the grid.

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