Trip to Poland to get second victory

It should mentioned that the four losses by Polish don’t guarantee Latvians an easy game or even an easier victory. After all Ventspils itself has just one victory that it got at home during the first round of the group tournament. If the team wants to fight for a place in the Group’s Top 4 and a place in the next round of the tournament, this game and this victory is a vital point to reach that goal – to finish the first round of the group tournament with two victories in five games means raising the chances to get into the Top4, while a lost game will mean the last place in the group standings.

It is all theoretically speaking, but it is clear as day that BK “Ventspils” went on its closest road trip – a bit more than 800 km from hometown – with thoughts and hearts set on the victory. Just to remember the game on the road against Krasnodar when Ventspils team looked quite hopeful, but truth be told just hope won’t be enough this time and nobody will be satisfied with another hopeful game by the team.

Until now Stelmet has been better in overall statistics but its defence has been catastrophic – on average 71,8 points made to 88,8 points lost. Even though Ventspils has the quietest offence in the group (averaging 69 points), it has also the second best defence – allowing the rivals to score 73,5 points on average. It is the most talked about subject before each and every game, and this game will be no exception – everything should start with a defence. But truth be told the team should remember the last game’s lesson because PAOK won it with scoring only 66 points – despite the good defence put up by the Latvians.

The biggest star of the Polish vice-champions unmistakably is the American with the Ukrainian passport Steve Burtt – but there is something that doesn’t quite work for him – maybe he can’t seem to lead the team, or maybe the team can’t find a way to adapt him on the team. Until now he hasn’t shone that bright with mindblowing statistics – just 11,7 points and 3,3 assists per game, while the shot percentage is not even close to being great. The best scorer on the team is the local point guard Lukas Koszarek averaging 12 points per game, as well as 6 assists.

In the previous games the Poles have been better than Latvians in rebounding, especially getting the offensive rebounds, and that is the measure that BK “Ventspils” had some problems with during some of its Eurocup’s games. For example, “Karsiyaka” got 18 offensive rebounds, “Lokomotiv” – 12, “PAOK” – just 4! Until now Poles have averaged 13,5 offensive rebounds per game, and that is not a small number and that should not be allowed at any cost. The best rebounders on “Stelmet” have been American forwards Chevon Troutman (5,3) and Quinton Hosley (4,8), as well as the Polish forward Maciej Kucharek (4,8).

Even if the first round of the Eurocup group tournaments ends this week, there won’t be no breaks between. Next week Ventspils will visit “Buducnost” but a week after that will host “Lokomotiv” and play its first out of two home games of the second round of the group tournament.

The game in Poland starts at 20 o’clock (Riga time) and the live coverage of it will be broadcasted on Sportacentrs.com.