It was a spectacular run for Latvia, especially considering they're FIBA World Cup first-timers.
Save for a woeful field goal, Arturs Zaggars put up a perfect game that saw him break the FIBA World Cup record in assists with 17 in Latvia’s 98-63 win over Lithuania on Saturday.
The 23-year-old playmaker, whose 0-of-6 shooting was the only blot in his outing, didn’t make a big deal out of it. After the match at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, he deflected credit to his teammates.
“I was just passing the ball and my teammates made the shot early in the first half as well. That’s that. It’s that simple. I just passed the ball and they made the shots,” said Zaggars, who also had zero turnovers.
Perhaps luck also played a role in it, the 6-foot-3 guard added.
“I don’t think it’s something special. Maybe I was just a bit lucky today because every time I passed the ball, like I said before, they made the shots,” he said.
With such performance, Zaggars put himself in the basketball radar across the globe. And Luca Banchi would not be surprised to see teams lining up to get his services.
“The next step is to find a job for this guy. He needs to play. Let’s hope that he will find a job,” said Banchi after the victory against the Jonas Valanciunas-led Lithuania.
“But I believe Arthurs played a solid tournament. Together with his teammates he did an excellent job,” he added of his prized ward who averaged 12.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in Latvia’s magical run.
Zaggars said the fifth-place finish means more for him. Latvia became the second debutant team to figure in a battle for fifth after Czech Republic in 2019. The challenge now is to sustain the program that saw the team beat world no. 1 team Spain in the second round of the Group Phase and world no. 10 Italy in the classification match.
"Obviously, I'm grateful and thankful. But it means more that we finished top 5 than the record, though," he said.
After withdrawing his application in the NBA Draft twice (2019 and 2020), maybe he can give that another shot.
(GM)