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Today was a small day of EuroKnicking, with Mindaugas Kuzminskas and SummerKnick Louis Labeyrie playing their games simultaneously this morning.
Behind a 27-point performance by Toronto Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas, Lithuania won their fourth consecutive game by taking care of Germany 89-72 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Meanwhile, France was unable to win its fourth straight, falling 95-78 to Slovenia in Helsinki, Finland.
With their win, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and his Luthianian side finish first in group B. Despite the loss, France will still get a good draw in the knockout rounds, finishing second in the group A standings behind undefeated Slovenia.
All group standings and knockout brackets can be found here.
Lithuania 89, Germany 72:
Mindaugas Kuzminskas was a starter in this game and probably didn’t make the most of that, but still played fine. He scored just 7 points, but picked up 6 rebounds. The only took one shot in the second half, and played a bit more sparingly as his team began to pull away down the stretch.
The win means Lithuania will face the fourth place team from group A, which will likely end up being Finland or Greece.
Highlights:
Slovenia 95, France 78:
Behind a huge 22-point, 3-rebound and 8-assist performance by Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic, Slovenia continued their impressive run through group A with their win against France. In the game, however, the French got a nice performance from SummerKnick Louis Labeyrie.
He scored 6 points, picked up 3 rebounds and got a steal in nearly 16 minutes of game time.
France is almost sure to finish second place, which means they’ll face group B’s third place team. That team almost certainly appears to be Germany. Hopefully Louis’ good contributions are being noted, and he continues to see solid minutes for France.
Highlights:
Willy Hernangómez and Spain are in action tomorrow at 10:45 AM ET against Hungary, followed by Kristaps Porzingis and Latvia taking on Turkey at 1:45 PM ET. Tomorrow’s games will conclude the group stage portion of the tournament. Friday will be a day off for everyone before round of 16 action gets going on Saturday! Let’s hope a Knick can get a championship in 2017!!!