Arturs Kurucs put on a shooting display. Arturs Zagars set a new record for the all-time assists.
Latvia couldn’t pick a perfect day to close out its campaign in the FIBA World Cup on a high note.
The Latvians outplayed their Baltic brothers from Lithuania, 98-63, Saturday night at the Mall of Asia Arena to end the biggest basketball spectacle at fifth place.
Kurucs, the 23-year-old dead shot guard playing in Greece, came away with 20 points on a fantastic 6-of-10 shooting display from beyond the arc as he set the tone for the Latvians’ excellent showmanship of firepower.
As a team, Latvia hit 16-of-32 three-point shots.
Then, there’s Zagars, who had his milestone moment in their team’s final game of the FIBA World Cup this year.
He is another 23-year-old player, who has set the direction for the team as he completed 17 assists, a new all-time record for number of dimes to erase the previous mark of 15 by the great Toni Kukoc set in 1994.
The 6-foot-3 guard ended up with only four points and missed all his seven attempts, but he made everybody on the team look good as three other players wound up in double figures – Rolands Smits (17), Andrejs Grazulis (12) and Rodions Kurucs (11).
