Israel's World Cup Dreams Shatter in Riga Against Latvia
The result will sit in the record books as an 85–70 loss to Latvia. The feeling around Israeli basketball will be far harsher than that.
On a night that was supposed to offer a response to the humiliation against Poland, Ariel Beit-Halahmy’s team built a double‑digit lead, looked lively, even confident – and then simply fell apart. By the final buzzer in Riga, the World Cup ticket was gone and so, it seemed, was any sense of direction.
A promising start, a familiar collapse
Israel actually opened the game with purpose. Beit-Halahmy went with Yair Kravits, Yam Madar, Netanel Artzi, Lior Carreira and Roman Sorkin, and the group immediately looked sharper than in the Polish debacle. Carreira struck first from deep, Madar flew out in transition for 5–2, and Israel were the team dictating the pace.
Latvia, far from an intimidating force on the night, answered through Kristers Zoriks, who pushed them to an 11–7 lead, but Artzi’s three and Sorkin’s first points steadied Israel. Kravits kept the pressure on, Eitan Borg injected energy off the bench, and the visitors closed the first quarter in front, 22–21.
The second period brought Israel’s best basketball of the evening. The second unit stayed on, and it paid off. Triples from Noam Palatin and Borg stretched the lead to 28–24. Madar knifed into the lane, Carreira floated in a soft jumper, and suddenly the advantage began to swell.
Sorkin and Itay Segev toughened up under the rim, winning position, drawing contact, and Israel climbed into double figures. At 10 and then 11 points clear, the blue-and-white finally looked like a functioning national team again.
Then the lights went out.
The offense stalled, the ball stopped moving, and every Latvian stop fed their belief. Zoriks kept attacking, the Israeli defense retreated, and a once‑promising cushion disappeared in a blur. Within minutes, the entire lead was gone. By halftime it was 41–41, the momentum flipped, and Madar’s modest 7 points and Borg’s 6 felt like thin resistance against a growing storm.
Strautins takes over, Israel freeze
If the second quarter raised alarms, the third confirmed the collapse.
Artzi tried to drag Israel back onto the front foot, opening the half with a three and adding a tough basket for 46–41. It looked like a reset. It wasn’t.
Latvia answered again, and this time Arturs Strautins seized the game. Shot after shot, drive after drive, he punished Israel’s soft closeouts and slow rotations, marching toward a career night. While Madar and Sorkin tried to keep Israel in touch, Strautins simply overpowered them at the other end.
Misses piled up in Israeli hands. Confidence drained. Rihards Lomazs found his rhythm from the perimeter, and the scoreboard began to tilt decisively. The gap moved to 58–52. Artzi hit enough to keep it from becoming a rout, reaching double figures himself, but it felt like holding back a tide with bare hands.
Strautins then buried another three to finish a devastating quarter. Latvia walked into the final period leading 67–58, the arena sensing that Israel had nothing left.
Garbage time and hard questions
Latvia needed only a few minutes in the fourth to slam the door. They came out aggressive, extended the lead to 14, and dominated the glass with ease. Israel had no answers, no spark, no fight that could change the script.
Sorkin missed a simple dunk. Madar, so often the emotional barometer of this team, couldn’t manufacture points or rhythm. Latvia kept collecting rebound after rebound, turning second chances into a 78–62 margin and, effectively, into extended garbage time.
The final minutes drifted by, the scoreboard ticking toward an 85–70 home win that felt far more comfortable than the margin suggested.
Madar closed with 15 points, Artzi with 11. Sorkin and Segev each had 9, Borg 8, Carreira 7. On paper, a spread of contributors. On the floor, it never felt like a coherent unit. Khadeen Carrington’s line told its own story: 2 points on 1‑for‑8 shooting, a night where nothing went right.
Latvia didn’t need brilliance, just solidity. Strautins delivered 29 points in the best performance of his international career, Lomazs added 18, Zoriks 16, and that was more than enough against an Israeli team that lost its grip on the game – and on its campaign – in the space of one brutal half.
After a weak qualifying run, a heavy beating by Poland and now a collapse against an unimpressive Latvian side, Israel finish this window not only outside the World Cup, but staring at something deeper: where does this national team actually go from here?
