A packed Arena Rīga venue saw another covincing performance by the hometown heroes, which leaves them undefeated in all four of their World Cup preparation matches on Latvian soil and tempering the disappointment of news that superstar player Kristaps Porziņģis will not be playing in the World Cup itself due to a foot injury.
Rolands Šmits scored 21 points for the winners on Wednesday, Andrejs Gražulis added 15 points, who also grabbed 10 rebounds, and Dāvis Bertāns provided 11 points. Elias Valtonen was the top scorer for the Finnish national team with 11 points.
The finals of the World Cup will take place from August 25 to September 10 in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. The Latvian national team will start the final tournament in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where they will compete against Lebanon in the first match on August 25. In the continuation of the group stage, they will have to play against France on August 27, and against Canada on August 29.
Before that, the squad will fly to Taiwan for two more pre-tournament preparation matches.
All matches of the Latvian national team can be seen live on LTV7 and LSM.lv.
Četras uzvaras četrās mājas spēlēs - valstsvienība ir gatava ceļam! 🤌🏽 #fibawc pic.twitter.com/run0DNawDe
— Latvijas Basketbola savienība (@basketbols) August 16, 2023
