Davis Bertans reveals what is the “heart” of the Latvian national team and admits that reaching the quarter-finals of the FIBA World Cup is the biggest moment in his career.
Latvia’s star Davis Bertans experienced a lot of uncertainty against France and Spain, so he didn’t need any of that against Brazil.
Maybe that’s why his teammates made sure to turn that knockout game into a complete triumph.
“At least we had some time to gather our thoughts before the final buzzer thanks to this big lead. The emotions weren’t as high as, for example, in the game against France,” Bertans told Eurohoops about Latvia’s historic qualification for the FIBA World Cup 2023 quarter-finals thanks to their victory over Brazil.
A great achievement for a country with just two million inhabitants. Bertans admitted that, given all this, this is the peak of his career so far.
“I feel like… yeah,” Bertans said when asked if this is the biggest moment in his career as a player.
“Every game for the national team is. And this tournament, making history for our country… I’m pretty sure that every person [in Latvia] was by the TV screens or watching big screens somewhere in the cities, watching us. We felt that energy from almost two million people,” Bertans added.
These people are now hoping that their national team will once again open a new path in the quarter-finals of the World Cup against undefeated Germany. And Latvia definitely won’t travel to Manila just for the “joy of being there” or “enjoying the experience.”
“We said that from day one, we didn’t come here just to participate. And it’s the same now for the quarter-finals. We’re going to rest, gather our thoughts, look at the opponent, and fight for a win in every game we have left.”
Most fans outside of Latvia quickly recognize Davis and his brother Dairis. They’ve seen Rolands Smits in the EuroLeague. They have Rodions Kurucs, who spent three years in the NBA.
Now they are getting to know some less familiar players like Arturs Zagars, Kristers Zoriks, and Andrejs Grazulis.
Zagars had 22 points and five assists in the victory over France and leads the team with 5.6 assists. Zoriks was a key player against Spain.
As for Grazulis, he scored 24 points on 11-of-15 shooting and had five assists against Brazil. He is now one of the team’s top scorers, tied with Smits at 13.4 points.
“The essence of the team is that every guy doesn’t care about his stats. Whoever starts the game, we’ll go to them.
He played aggressively. He played with heart and passion, and when he starts hitting, we’ll look for him. He was always in a great position to score,” Bertans said about Grazulis.
The quarter-final Germany – Latvia is scheduled for Wednesday.