Despite the Washington Wizards overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls, NBA history was made, as two teammates from Latvia played together in the same game for the first time.
Those two teammates are Davis Bertans and Anzejs Pasecniks for the Wizards.
Due to injuries in the Wizards frontcourt, Pasecniks was brought up to the NBA after playing in the G-League with the Capital City Go-Go.
As Pasecniks mentioned, there are now four Latvian players in the NBA: Pasecniks, Bertans, Kristaps Porzingis of the Mavericks and Rodions Kurucs of the Brooklyn Nets.
Kurucs is the youngest of the four players, but Pasecniks was the last to make his NBA debut.
Pasecniks, who turns 24 on Dec. 20, was a first round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, but it took three seasons for him to see game action.
Head coach Scott Brooks was impressed by his debut.
“I thought he was terrific,” Brooks said. “He’s big at the basket, pretty good hands. He knows how to play, makes good passes, makes good reads, and he is only going to get better. He’s a young player. We’re going to keep giving him some confidence.”
Pasecniks said he learned the night before that he was going to play, but he didn’t expect to play as much as he did (28 minutes).
He also said what helped was that the Go-Go run the same playbook and terminology as the Wizards.
