Men's Basketball Coach Mazurs: "We Are a Team of Shooters, Played Extremely Well"

Nikolajs Mazurs (Latvia), the first-ever foreign head coach of the South Korean men's basketball national team to lead the squad to the Asian Games final in 12 years, expressed satisfaction with both the team's offense and defense.

Speaking at a press conference after the semifinal match of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan, today (the 18th), Coach Mazurs stated, "I want to thank the fans who came out, the players' families and friends, and everyone who supports us."

The South Korean men's basketball national team, led by Coach Mazurs, defeated Iran 51-77 (Note: Iran 51-77 South Korea based on text order) and advanced to the final.

This marks the first time in 12 years that South Korea has reached the men's basketball final since winning the gold medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

Although South Korea had suffered six consecutive losses against Iran in recent national team matchups, the squad achieved a flawless victory that rendered those past records meaningless, leaving them just one win away from capturing the gold medal for the first time in 12 years.

Coach Mazurs evaluated, "As you saw in the first quarter (12-8), Iran's players are big and strong, making it a low-scoring game. However, we found our rhythm in the second and third quarters and were able to play our brand of basketball. It was crucial to match them physically, fight for rebounds, and hold our ground, and in those situations, we were able to find our own style of basketball."

He also emphasized, "We focused on playing good team defense, and I want to tell the players once again that they did a tremendous job. I believe we showed a level of performance today that deserves to be celebrated."

On this day, Team Mazurs laid the foundation for victory by exploding for 14 three-pointers, overwhelming Iran from the perimeter.

Ace player Lee Hyun-jung spearheaded the attack by sinking 7 shots from beyond the arc.

Coach Mazurs expressed his satisfaction, saying, "The South Korean team is a 'team of shooters.' They showed an exceptionally good performance today."

He explained, "Finding our rhythm was important, and to achieve that, our big men set great screens. Tactically, we focused on how to exploit mismatches when they played a switch defense to get the ball inside and create three-point shots, or how to move the ball quickly when they hedged to regain our offensive flow."

Looking back, Coach Mazurs noted, "Our team had 22 assists today. While Lee Hyun-jung made many difficult shots, excluding those, most of our three-pointers seemed to come from open looks." He added firmly, "I am happy that we were able to play our own style of basketball."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.