By Antonis Stroggylakis / astroggylakis@eurohoops.net
Jakarta, Indonesia – Latvia was the last team to have practice Saturday (26/8). Their training session actually ended while the game between Spain and Ivory Coast was minutes away from its final buzzer.
The first Group G clash of that day was the win of Brazil vs. Iran. A match that was stigmatized by Raul Neto suffering a patellar tendon rupture injury.
“Great guy, great teammate when I was in DC,” Latvia star forward Davis Bertans said when told by Eurohoops about Neto’s injury. He was teammates with the Brazilian guard at the Washington Wizards from 2020 to 2022. “Knowing him, he’s a tough guy and he’ll bounce back and hopefully sooner than later he’ll be back on the court.”
In a Q&A, Bertans talked about Latvia’s Sunday game against France, his team’s World Cup goals, joining the Oklahoma City Thunder and how he felt watching his beloved Partizan Belgrade making noise in last season’s EuroLeague.
Eurohoops: France right now is pretty much the definition of a “wounded animal” ready to bite back after the loss to Canada. How do you approach the game because of that result and how much more alert you guys should be?
Davis Bertans: It’s France. We have to be alert before even they lost. I don’t think we have to specifically change anything. The same mindset that we have, we’re going to go in with vs. France. The more wins you collect in this Group the bigger the chance to go to the quarterfinals. Even if they won the game, it would be the same France coming at us. Of course, they are facing relegation, in a way of speaking. Honestly, I think they would’ve probably played the same way regardless of the outcome against Canada.
That’s because they know that we can be a dangerous team. It’s going to be more about us and the way we command the game. The first minutes are going to be important. You got to be ready for physicality anyway. On offense try to get to our shots, use our advantages and be extremely physical on the defensive end with their big guys.
EH: What do you hope for ahead of beginning the NBA season with a team that trusts international talent like the Oklahoma City Thunder?
D.B.: My role has always changed for reasons that have to do with what every team expects from me and wants from me. I always try to adapt. Whatever the coach is going to ask from me, that’s what I’m going to do. Everyone even knows that when I step on the court I go 100 percent regardless of what I have to do on the court. Whatever the role is, I’ll try to be the best player I can be on that role.
E.H: Your new Thunder teammates Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort are here in Jakarta with Canada and you will face them too. Have you talked to them?
No, just a couple of works when we are walking by at the hotel.
E.H: They greeted you as their new teammate?
Yeah.. and that’s about it. Just walking by, saying ‘hi’ etc. We are all focused on our thing here.
EH: How did you feel watching Partizan Belgrade returning to EuroLeague and making the playoffs last year?
D.B.: Oh man… just watching the games especially the playoffs… even through the TV I could feel the goosebumbs.
Every single time when I see something like that it comes back to my memory when I came back from the ACL and the second game back on the court was the Top 16 game against Maccabi at the big arena there (editor’s note: a 72 – 70 win for Partizan in Kombank Arena in the 2014 EuroLeague Top 16). All the best emotions come back.
E.H: To return to the World Cup: Where do you set the ceiling for Latvia in the tournament?
D.B.: We aren’t looking at the future that far. We’ve gone one game at a time since we started the World Cup Qualifiers. That’s been working for us. The plan is just keep going one game at a time. If we can take this one tomorrow – great, if not we’re going to look at the next one. And the next one and the next one.