Fiba World Cup: Latvia crushes Lebanon in debut

Latvia’s Dairis Bertans. –FIBA BASKETBALL

MANILA, Philippines–Latvia instantly made a statement on its first appearance on the global stage, beating Lebanon to a pulp, 109-70, on Friday night at the start of the 2023 Fiba World Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Dairis Bertans fired 20 points built around six threes and Rolands Smits scored 11 of his 17 in the opening period for the Latvians, who displayed accurate shooting and unselfish ball movement throughout in a swift demolition of their Group H rivals at the Indonesia Arena.

They knocked down a total of 18 from far out, six less than the world championship record of 24 with more than half of these three-pointers coming in the first half that created a wide 55-30 crevice that the Lebanese eventually couldn’t stitch.

Kristers Zoriks had 11 points, Davis Bertans added 10 as well as Anzejs Pasecniks, whose alley oop dunk off Arturs Zagars’ lob bumped up the largest lead, 101-58, eliciting cheers from injured NBA veteran and Latvian center Kristaps Porzingis at the sidelines.

Wael Arakji, the Asia Cup most valuable player, finished with 14 points, but muffed most of his shots from afar, exemplifying Lebanon’s struggles after going seven of 24 from the three-point arc.

Sergio El Darwich was the lone bright spot for the Asian squad with 19 points while Omari Rasulala Spellman tallied 18, majority of them when the one-sided contest was already in the books.

The Latvians patiently rotated the leather so well with 34 assists that generated several scoring opportunities with open looks while hammering the Lebanese with their height superiority inside for a 34-27 advantage off the boards.

Smits set the tone for the rout by burying a corner three and a wide-open mid-range jumper followed by a curl in the middle and a two-handed slam off a break that quickly established a 17-9 lead barely five minutes had gone by after tip-off.

Seeing action in the world championships for the first time, Latvia visibly isn’t playing just for the experience while Lebanon is on its second World Cup stint after finishing 20th out of 24 teams in 2010 Turkey.

Both countries take a breather on Saturday before Latvia faces France and Lebanon meets Canada on Sunday.