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Bagatskis: We will ask Fiba to allow a 6th player to stop Parker

The French have taken a step back by losing to Lithuania. They only managed to score 62 points, 18 below their average and Parker made only 8 shots in 30 minutes

What are the French doing? It is a question that even they don't have an answer to. Losing to Lithuania is not that bad, but the body language of Tony Parker tells a different story. It was not just an ordinary loss, there was no desire or drive Parker usually uses to break down opposing teams. On top of that he was on the bench for the last two minutes. And Nicolas Batum, who should have been his helping hand in their quest for the golden medal, has played beyond par. His three point field goal percentage on the Eurobasket is 16.7 percent or 4/24. Since he attempts more three point shots than two (16/21), we can come to the conclusion how good his overall game is.

Realistically, Lithuania was the first big challenge France has come across. We should not take into account the matches against Germany, Belgium, UK, Israel or Ukraine. That was just a warm up in the first round. And they managed just 62 points, 18.6 less then their first round average.

- A coach can try anything, but the player must resolve the issue himself. When he is in such a situation, he needs to focus on other aspects of his game. Bring more energy into the defensive part, work more in offense. I think that he is too static and ball-dependent. He needs to be more mobile. This situation is probably very frustrating for him - said coach Vincent Collet about Batum, on a press conference.

Against Lithuania their players didn't have a good day, Batum had 3/10 and Parker 4/8 in 30 minutes. It is almost unthinkable that Parker would only take 8 shots in a game. De Colo scored 12, but his two three pointers came when they were trailing by 15 points.

- The offensive part of our game was lacking today. Latvia will be a totally different opponent than those we have played until now. They have a lot of good shooters, and they had 15/29 for three points against Ukraine. They shoot from all positions. This will be a different game and we can expect a lot of problems - warned Pietrus in his blog at Sport24.fr

And while the French, especially some players like Batum, have confidence problems, Latvia's confidence has skyrocketed after they defeated Ukraine. A great, agile and playful performance with 15 three pointers from 29 attempts. Percentage for two points was at 66, for three at 42. They outjumped them 40-34 and had 11 assists more and 1 turnover less. Everything went their way and the game was over even before it finished.

- Before the game it was important to play aggressively and in a smart way. You don't get anything on a plate, we had to play patiently. We had a good defence, and what is most important, a smart offence - coach Ainars Bagatskis was booming.

Their defence stopped the main Ukrainian offensive threats, SG Gladyr and PG Jeter, and on the paint Berzins and Freimanis have fought well against Kravtsov (missed a million easy shots) and other tall players. They probably played the best match of the tournament so far.

This victory is very important because they did not carry victories from the first round, while Ukraine carried one. If they had lost, the Latvians would have virtually been eliminated from the tournament. Now they still gave a chance to get to the quarter final if they beat Belgium. Because of that today's match is not that important. 

- The French have very talented individuals and have an even more varied offense than two years ago. They often use the centre Ajinca. Parker has an important role, but as a team they are even more dangerous - claims the Latvian coach, who has explained in an interesting way how to stop Tony Parker:

- We should ask FIBA to give us permission to field a sixth player on court. On a serious note, there are not a lot of players who can stop him. We shall use some options, but don't forget that they have five other NBA players except him. But lets see how it goes, basketball is a creative process.

Two years ago they lost in Lithuania 89:78. It was in the first round, and Parker had 31 points, 7 assists and shot 11/18 from open play.

- Lithuania managed to break Parker, keep the balance in the paint and produce the three pointer in the right time. It's a good plan. Now we just have to implement it - said the Latvian coach interestingly.

The statistics say that France has went over in 4 out of 6 games and Latvia in 2 out of 6. But statistics can sometimes be misleading. Against Latvia, Ukraine scored 51 points and Macedonia 66. The game against Montenegro had a total of a 145 points, and against the defensively minded Lithuanians the total was a 126 points. However, this will be a completely different game. France will do a better job in the offensive department than the Lithuanians did. Parker will surely take control because this game is too important for them and he won't allow the game to get out of their reach. In the last game he only had 8 field goal attempts. Latvia likes to shoot the ball and the players move around a lot on offense. France has problems dealing with teams like these, and this has the makings of a game similar to the one between Serbia and Latvia, where the total went over a 150 points. Two years ago these teams played a game that ended 89-78. Both teams have similar game plans, similar head coaches and similar types of players. If Batum has a good scoring day, this will be an excellent pick. However, we'll go in with medium stakes.