Latvia has started this European Championsji very well, tonight they defeated strong Lithuanian team. This game was intriguing, because Lithuani and Latvia are neighbour countries. The games started with a slight advantage from Latvia 9-2, Kristaps Valters was showing his best in first minutes of the game. Lithuanians came back from the awful start and won the first quarter 19-17. The second quarter was an even battle both teams getting a few point lead, but none getting more than 4 points ahead. Lithuanians had the lead at 40-37 just 5.8 seconds until the end of first half, but Sandis Valters shot a buzzer beating trey to tie the score 40-40 after first half. Second half started with a great performance from Janicenoks, who made 2 threee-pointers and a jump shot to get Latvians ahead 48-42. Lithuanians struggled to take the lead back and lost the quarter 59-62. In the 4th quarter Lithuania at last tied the score at 69-69, later getting the lead too 72-71, but then Latvia scored 10 points in a row and it was just too much to Lithuanians, who lost the game. Latvia won this 85-81, now they are in the first place of group D.
Player of the Game:
Andris Biedrins 12pts 12rebs 4ast 3blk
Other notable performers:
Latvia
Name Points/Rebounds/Assists/Blocks/Steals
K.Janicenoks 19/1/2/0/0
K.Valters 17/2/5/0/1
A.Skele 11/3/6/0/2
Lithuania
Name Points/Rebounds/Assists/Blocks/Steals
A.Macijauskas 19/1/2/0/0
D.Paulauskas 18/1/4/0/0
Z.Ilgauskas 12/13/3/1/0
Highlights:
Biedrins blocks Siskauskas shot
Skele with a dunk
Biedrins dunks on Big Z...
...and blocks his shot on the other endOther Games:
Group A
Spain 95-78 Croatia
Spain won it's second game in a row thanks to a big game from Garbajosa, who had a game high 25 points. Best from the Croatian squad was Marko Popovic, who scored 24 points. Spain continues it's journey to the gold medals, while Croatians will have a hard battle against Bosnia to get to the next stage of the tournament
Italy 90-83 Bosnia & Herzegovina
This was the second win for Italy in a very interesting matchup, despite the fact that Bargnani still struggles to find his way to score. Another great game from Gallinari and Belinelli, who scored 29 points. On the Bosnian side the best player was K.Bajramovic with 20 points.
Group B
Serbia 91-109 Slovenia
Serbians surprisingly lost to Slovenia a now they got no chance on getting to the next stage of the tournament. That's the first really big surprise of the tournament. About the game - Slovenians didn't have any problem defeating Serbia, because of the great play of Vujacic and Udrih, who had respectively 27 and 29 points. In the next game Slovenia meets Israel for a fight for the second place in the group B.
Greece 116-93 Israel
Greece is currently the best team in the tournament, they didn't leave a chance for Israel to win this game and now Greeks have guaranteed a first place in the group. The best player for Greece side was T.Papaloukas with 26 points, while T.Burstein scored 32 for Israel
Group C
France 83-89 Germany
France haven't won a game in this tournament yet, while Germans have two wins already. If France continues like this, they aren't getting to the next stage of the tournament. The game was a really close matchup, but it ended in favour for Nowitzki's team, with Dirk getting some imrotant baskets late in the game. Nowitzki had 18 points and 7 boards, while on France's side Diaw scored 23 points.
Russia 96-89 Bulgaria
Russia got it's first win against the surprisingly well playing Bulgarians, but none of those two teams can be sure of playing in the next stage. N.Morgunov had his game of career with 20 points and 9 boards, while Bulgarian leader T.Stoykov had 20 points.
Group C
Turkey 90-67 Ukraine
Turkey has it's first victory against bad playing Ukrainians, who we won't see in the next stage, while Turkey will battle Lithuania for second place in the tournament. Okur had 19 points, 8 rebounds in this game.
NLSCers in the tournament:
Will Sit / Spain
Sit had a much better game today - his team won and he got his first points in the championship. Sit came from the bench to replace bad playing Navarro and scored 8 points adding 2 assists. Maybe this will make Spanish coach to start him over Navarro.
Donatas Paulauskas / Lithuania
Lithuanian had another great game, this time against Latvians. He was flying on the court dunking the ball and shooting treys, he confused Latvian guards with his great speed. Donatas scored 18 points and dished 4 assists in the game
Paulauskas dunkin'
Berzins with a nice dunk
Sandis Valters made some incredible shots
Kambala dunks the ball on two Bosnian players
Kristaps Valters with a crucial last secon steal, which converted into 3 points and OT.
Berzins does the thing he loves to do the best
Biedrins wit a huge 2 plus a foul basket.
Janicenoks dunks
Kambala with a nice dunk
Biedrins stops the Italian offence
Janicenoks had a great shooting night
