By Aris Barkas / barkas@eurohoops.net
Ainars Bagatskis and Kristaps Janicenoks agreed that Latvia could play harder against France in the third quarter in order to stay close in the score.
Latvia’s coach, Ainars Bagatskis explained after the game about it: “We knew who we were playing against and what the atmosphere was like. We were ready for that. We respected them and they fought from the beginning. Bad for us was the end of the second quarter when (Tony) Parker scored nine points in a row. From the beginning of the third quarter we were off for about five minutes. We were not ready for a very hard game. We missed a couple of good shots. We let the French score easy points, but we tried to do our best in the end”.
Kristaps Janicenoks said about the game: “The crowd was amazing. Congratulations to the France team. We were really tough in the first half. We knew they would come out in the third quarter and for three or four minutes would be physical and we would have to fight against that. But we didn’t fight hard enough and that’s where they won the game. That was the key”
France’s coach, Vincent Collet commented on the game: “It was very difficult in the first half. We had some problems with some switches. A few minutes before half-time we decided to switch on everything. That is not common, as we had the big men on the point guard. But fortunately we have big men who can handle that and that allowed us to do other things. Before that we were running after them. After that they stopped the ball”.
On his side, Boris Diaw said: “It was a tough start as we were expecting. They are a great team which is why they are in the quarter-finals. We had a tough time against them and their unusual style in the first half. We switched a lot against them. We’re happy that worked and we were able to win the game in the second half”.