Basketball | Latvia crushed Susijeng in the World Cup general – Markkanen shone in his absence

Finland the national men’s basketball team lost to Latvia with points of 57–94 in a practice match played in Riga on Wednesday evening. Latvia won the second half of the match by as much as 55–25.

The game was Susijeng’s general practice for the World Basketball Championships starting next week.

Finland had a great start to the match. Made it to the starting five Elias Valtonen forged eight points in the first four minutes of the match in Finnish karate for a 13–3 lead.

After that, Latvia caught up and closed the gap to four points by the end of the opening quarter. In the second ten minutes, Latvia pushed past and took a 39–32 lead at the break. Valtonen was the most effective Finn in the opening half of the match with ten points.

Third the quarter was really rough for Finland: Latvia won the quarter by as much as 25–8, increasing its lead to 24 points (64–40) before the final quarter.

Latvia’s number one player had scored 21 points Roland Smits. Only two Finnish players reached double-digit points: Valtonen recorded 11 points and Alex Murphy ten.

The biggest star of the wolf gang Lauri Markkanen was on the sidelines for the match, and the absence of the scorer was visible on the field.

“My body has taken a hit in the last few games. I would have liked to play, but after the morning practice we talked and decided that it would be good to rest a few days before the World Championships”, Markkanen said under the Latvia game.

Also Latvia has injury concerns, as the NBA star Kristaps Porziņģis told on Tuesday that he will miss the World Cup due to injury. He was not seen on the field against Finland either.

Susijengi starts the basketball World Cup against Australia on August 25. In addition, Finland will face Japan and Germany in Group E, which will be played in Okinawa.