Sluggish start rattles Latvians

Latvia coach Luca Banchi felt that his players panicked after a bad start that saw them get buried in a deep hole against lower-ranked Gilas Pilipinas in their FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament encounter early Thursday (Philippine time) at the Arena Riga.

The world No. 6 Latvians found themselves trailing 0-8 and were unable to climb out of a hole they themselves created after that.

“Unfortunately, the game started immediately bad and that created a sort of panic in the team,” Banchi said.

Relying too much on their outside shots that barely hit the target, getting outmuscled on the boards and just getting outplayed by a team 31 ranks lower than them was the story for the frustrated Latvians.

“We rushed. When you see the number you can understand,” the Italian mentor said.

Latvia only shot 37 percent from the field and even threw bricks from the three-point area with 10-of-42 against Gilas — a stark contrast to its 49 percent shooting from the floor and an efficient 12-of-29 treys in its opening 83-55 blowout of Georgia in the opener.

“We had a lot of threes, most of the time open, but unfortunately we lost from the beginning,” Banchi said.

The Filipinos even outrebounded last year’s World Cup fifth placer and much taller Latvia, 43-34.

But gracious in defeat, Banchi conceded that Gilas was the better team in the game.

“We congratulate our opponent who had a great game. I believe (they had) excellent performance from the very beginning. They were very sharp. They imposed their physicality but also their sharpness to find every time good solutions on offense,” he said.

“From our side, there is a good lesson. We are in the tournament and that game can help us set the tone in such a tournament.”

The Latvians despite the loss are already through to the crossover semifinal in Group A and will just await who will accompany them in the next round between Gilas and Georgia, who are playing as of press time.

Brazil, Montenegro and Cameron are jostling for spots in the next round in Group B.