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Unrecognizable, disconnected, slow, the Nacional that we saw on Friday night (11/27) was not the team we were used to in recent years. Our representative team was defeated by Latvia (66-77) in the first of the two Sarajevo “bubble” matches, fell 2-1 in the qualifying phase of Eurobasket 2022 and got into little trouble, with their match El Sunday (11/29) with Bulgaria, again in Sarajevo, to be very critical.
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With bad percentages from the periphery, with ineffective defensive rebound, with poor creation from the end of the first half and then and with the lack of a good shooter / scorer, Greece may have underestimated their opponent who played more stubbornly, it was at a faster pace and won fairly to re-enter the tournament finals ticket claim.
See here the group rating
The MVP
Marex Megeris and Martins Megers could be the same … person! The two Latvians were amazing against Greece. The first had 14 points from 4/7 two points and 2/2 three points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals, the second had 13 points from 6/8 two points, eight rebounds, one assist and two steals.
THE WEAK LINK
Vassilis Kavvadas was not the player we see with the Hercules jersey. At 12:08 he had three points from 1/4 two points and 1/2 shots, did not get rebounds, had an assist, made two blocks, two errors and four fouls, while in the time he played he scored -14 in the +/- category.
THE STATISTICS THAT stood out
Greece scored two triples in the first ten minutes, in which they had nine assists by mistake. And yet he was ahead only by one point, to continue with an assist by six errors (!) In the second half and close the first half with 1/6 of three points. At the end of the night, Martins Laksa had 19 points from 2/2 two points, 4/4 three points and 3/3 shots, he was simply the player Greece did not have in their dozen. The Latvians had 15 offensive rebounds, while Greece closed the game with 42.1% on two points and 28% on three points.
THE RACE
Skourtopoulos opened the meeting with Mantzaris, Katsivelis, Giannis and Dimitris Agravanis, Kavvada. Greece took it seriously, took advantage of Kavvadas to wear down the Latvians in the opening minutes, took a marker from the Agravani brothers and built a seven-point lead (21-14 in the 9 ‘), but took two shots in the final seconds of the first half and he closed at +1 (21-20), a score that did not reflect his general panorama.
An image that completely changed in the second ten minutes. With little movement of the ball, hasty decisions and shots in poor condition, the attack stopped working. At the same time, the Latvians took advantage of their chances, increased the difference with small steps, sent it to 12 (30-42) in the 19 ‘and as much as it sounds excessive, they could have an even greater distance towards the Thanasis Skourtopoulos players than they yelled how “dIt is not a friendly, but an official match“.
Everyone expected a reaction from Greece at the beginning of the third period, but it did not come. Consecutive errors provided upsets in a row in Latvia, Laksa scored two baskets for 38-53 in 24 ‘and Skourtopoulos kept calling for concentration in time-outs. The -20 (38-58) was not easy to return, Ethniki reduced to 14 at the end of the quarter (50-64) and to 11 (53-64) at the beginning of the quarter with a triple from the Athenian, but did not achieve anything else, Mainly because he didn’t believe in his potential and didn’t deserve anything else.
THE REFEREES: Viator, Protz, Mategek
THE TEN MINUTES: 21-20, 30-42, 50-64, 66-77
HELLAS (Skourtopoulos): Giannis Agravanis 6 (3/3 two points, 5 rebounds), Athinaiou 6 (2/9 shots, 7 rebounds), Gikas 9 (2/7 shots), Katsivelis 4 (2/9 shots, 7 rebounds, 4 assists), Margaritis 10 (2), Dimitris Agravanis 15 (5/10 two points, 1/4 three points, 2/4 shots, 8 rebounds), Kavvadas 3 (1/4 two points), Lountzis 9 (1) , Mantzaris 2 (5 rebounds, 5 assists), Skordilis 2, Tsairelis
Latvia (Stelmachers): Ate 3 (1), Lomaz 6 (2/10 shots), Megers 13 (6/8 two points, 9 rebounds), Megeris 14 (6/9 shots, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals), Skele 10 (6 assists), Bergins, Chavars, Freemanis 5, Gulbis, Laksa 19 (2/2 two points, 4/4 three points, 3/3 shots), Vitols 4 (1), Zoricks 3 (1/8 shots )
Greece Group Stats: 16/38 two points, 7/25 three points, 13/19 shots, 37 rebounds (25 defensive – 12 offensive), 16 assists, 7 steals, 5 blocks, 13 errors
Latvia group statistics: 21/43 two points, 9/23 three points, 8/16 shots, 43 rebounds (28 defensive – 15 offensive), 17 assists, 8 steals, 1 blocking, 15 errors
The next matches of the two teams: Greece will face Bulgaria on Sunday (11/29 at 19:00), while Latvia will play the same day as Bosnia.
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