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Russia opened the competition with a win over Latvia, who prefer a very fast paced basketball. The game finished at 130 points. Belgium, on the other hand, played Montenegro, who are not at the highest level defense-wise, at 130 points. I expect an even tougher meeting today. I doubt Belgium can hit 25 in one quarter again. Russia have one of the best defenses here. They beat Belgium 57-48 in a test game in Italy. Belgium were without their top offensive end player Meessman which means they will be better on both ends of the floor today. Looking at Russia's test games with defense-oriented teams comparable to Belgium, they have 65-40 with Italy, 59-58 and 69-52 against Turkey. They had a 15-point lead over Belgium by the end of first half. The game fell apart early on which I do not expect to happen today. Belgium lost the test game to Italy 62-68 and to Spain 59-59 and 48-87.