Spain wants to gain experience in Riga
Sergio Scariolo’s team visits without urgencies and with a lot of youth to a Latvia that has been choked
MADRID, 19 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men’s basketball team will face this Thursday (18.30 hours/teleoporte) the first of its two matches of the last ‘window’ of classification for this summer’s Eurobasket, a hard visit to a Latvia that has not been done too well In the last duels and the one that will be measured in search of competing and gaining experience for the future.
The current European champion, with some suffering, already has her guaranteed ticket for the defense of her title after her double victory in November against the modest Slovakia and now try to leave her best image in the two duels that remain, with the visit to Leon of Belgium next Sunday as next stop.
The first is a trip to Riga in the middle of an intense moment of the season and for which the coach Sergio Scariolo goes with a young and inexperience Latvian has increased its benefits.
Latvia, Ninth, is behind Spain, sixth, in the FIBA world ranking, but in the last games against the double world champion, it has proven to be a ‘hard bone to gnaw’ and has taken the victory. He did it in the 2023 World Cup, when the then current champion collapsed in a last fourth fourth (27-11) to fall by 74-69 and complicate a pass to the quarterfinals that did not certify when he later lose before Canada.
Months later, at the beginning of the classification for the Eurobasket, Latvia of precisely a year ago, the letters, who arrived after finishing fifth in that mundobasket, showed that it was no accident and they returned to manage the national team to defeat him in Prince Felipe from Zaragoza for 75-79 in a special match because it meant the return of Ricky Rubio.
These two victories were against a Spain composed of players of the spine that Scariolo has manufactured in recent years and will now try a third before his audience in front of a Spain with many notable absences in his ranks despite not having Euroleague. Players such as the Hernangómez brothers, Lorenzo Brown, Alex Abrines or Alberto Díaz, in addition to the NBA Santi Aldama, have not been summoned for different reasons.
In addition, the Italian coach has seen how before they started preparing these games in Guadalajara, two ‘veterans’ and European champions such as the Darío Brizuela escort and the wing-powerful Jaime Pradilla were lost due to physical problems, which reduces the potential of a selection that will have to show its ‘DNA’ in a match without excessive urgencies for any since the premises, as one of the hosts, are also classified for the Eurobasket.
In this way, in Riga there will only Xabi López-Arostegui and Joel Parra as European champions and leaders of a team with the future represent , without counting on the escort of Valencia Basket and the wing of the FC Barcelona, a total of 41 internationalities, with Santi Yusta, ‘hero’ of the previous ‘window’ in the visit to Slovakia, as the next with more (12).
In front, a Latvia that does go with the large part of its best players to keep your undefeated in this classification phase that was a bit of ‘filling’ and that served mainly for preparation for a Eurobasket for which it already had a fixed ticket .
The Baltic team has summoned 15 players for this window, including Spanish basketballs such as the brothers Bertans and the Kurucs brothers, Janis Strelnieks or Marcis Steinbergs, although Luca Banchi has sensitive absences such as those of the Arturs Zagars base (Fenerbahce) and the Pivot Roland Smits (Anadolu Efes).
Data Sheet.
-Equipos.
Letonia: A.Kurucs, R.Kurucs, Dairis Bertans, Davis Bertans, Strelnieks, Steinberg, Grazulis, Skele, Cavars, Laksa, Skuja, Clip, Silin, Zorik Y Macoha.
Spain: Villar, Saint-Supery, Yusta, López-Arostegui, Parra, Vila, Guerrero, Almansa, González, Martínez, Salvó and Puerto.
–Paber: Xiaomi Arena de Riga.
-Hora: 18.30/TedeDeporte.