Top Performers September 7: Skele, Brazdeikis, Kuzminskas, Grazulis and Valanciunas

MANILA (Philippines) - Latvians and Lithuanians decided to fill out the daily Top Performers list before they battle it out in a Baltic derby on Saturday to decide the fate of the 5th place.

There's a lot that can be done with good depth. Latvia and Aigars Skele proved that in their 87-82 win against Italy. Skele stepped up after only playing 3 minutes in their tough Quarter-Finals loss against Germany and proved that he belongs in this World Cup with 12 points, 9 assists and 4 rebounds against the Azzurri. Flirting with a double-double was cool and all, but what made his performance special was the 5-of-6 shooting from the field.

The other Classification Game granted us with three efficient statlines from the Lithuanians who took care of business against Slovenia in a 100-84 effort. Ignas Brazdeikis first contributed with a couple of assists, but then he turned towards scoring, knocking down two memorable three-pointers in a row late in the second quarter. It set the tempo for things to come as the bruising forward left the court with 15 points, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Mindaugas Kuzminskas made sure that there's no let up as he represented the forwards off Lithuania's bench. 'Kuz' already had 8 points in the first quarter and finished the game just as perfect with 14 points total, 3 steals and flawless 5-of-5 shooting from the field. His last basket must have given bad flashbacks for USA fans as Kuzminskas yet again made a fourth quarter three-ball that would be pretty hard to repeat.

There was no scenario under which Latvian big Andrejs Grazulis doesn't join our Top Performers, given the fact that he rewrote history. Grazulis made 12-of-13 shots from the field, recording the best Field Goal Percentage (92.3%) for a player with at least 10 attempts in a FIBA World Cup game over the last 30 years. It gave him 28 points and 6 rebounds for the game, with his last shot putting one final dagger in the hearts of Italians.

Of course, there's just no party for Lithuania without Jonas Valanciunas dominating down low. In what was his third double-double of this World Cup, JV got to 24 points, 12 rebounds and excellent 8-of-8 shooting from the free throw line. It was another performance full of fierce battling, his signature pump fakes and an apparent necessity to do as much damage as possible to Mall of Asia Arena rims. 

Latvian or Lithuanian? That's the question today.

FIBA