Knicks EuroBasket Roundup 9/3/17: Knicks might never lose again (in Europe)

Two Knicks (more like 1.5, really) were in action in EuroBasket’s Sunday slate with France and SummerKnick vet Louis Labeyrie taking down Iceland 115-79 in Helsinki, Finland and Mindaugas Kuzminskas’ Lithuania team getting by Italy 78-73 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The Kuz did fine coming off the bench, and Labeyrie made a play, so let’s obsess over it.

Lithuania 78, Italy 73:

Lithuania handed Italy its first L of the tournament, holding on to beat them by 5 after Italy rallied late in the game. Mindaugas Kuzminskas had a decent game, scoring 14 points on 5-13 from the field and 3-7 from deep. He added a rebound, a steal and a block to his line.

Here’s how he looked in the game:

Kuz and Lithuania will also be back in action on Tuesday at 8:45 AM ET against the Ukraine. Lithuania also appears to be in good shape to move on to the Knockout rounds.

France 115, Iceland 79:

France is looking to catch up to Slovenia, who sits atop the group A standings, and keep pace with Finland, who also has a 3-1 record, but holds the head-to-head advantage over the French after beating them earlier this week.

Today, France played what appeared to be the gimme game in their group. They beat last place Iceland without much resistance and Louis Labeyrie played pretty well in the win. He scored 9 points in 3 for 4 from the floor and 3 for 5 from the line. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 assists in 18 minutes of game time. EuroBasket’s box score has him at a +22 +/- and an efficiency rating of 15.

Oh, and he blocked 2 shots, including this one:

With their three losses, Iceland’s chances at moving on to the knockout stages appear to be pining for the fjords.

(I know the parrot is supposed to be Norwegian but close enough).

France, on the other hand, is off until Tuesday when they’ll face Poland at 9:30 AM ET. They look to be in no danger of missing out on the knockout stages, and we can only hope to see plenty more Labeyrie as they move forward.

Here are the full highlights from today’s game:

Kristaps (7:15 AM EST, against Great Britain) and Willy (1:30 PM EST, against Romania) will be in action Monday.