Knicks Evan Fournier and Rokas Jokubaitis advance to the EuroBasket knockout stage

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s basketball afoot. The group stage of EuroBasket 2022 finished Wednesday. A pair of Knicks, Evan Fournier (France) and draft-and-stashee Rokas Jokubaitis (Lithuania) made it out of Group B, though it was rarely pretty.

France finished the group stage at 3-2, with losses to Germany and Slovenia. They finished third in their group.

Fournier averaged 15.0 points over five games in the group stage, but he struggled with efficiency, as a 38.2 FG% and 31.4 3P% can attest. He is averaging 3.0 assists per game, however. He had his best performance in a win over Rokas and Lithuania.

Lithuania finished 2-3 and needed a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina Wednesday to wrap up the final Round of 16 spot in Group B.

Rokas started at PG for a veteran Lithuania squad that likes to run its offense through bigs Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis. He averaged 8.4 PPG on 42.9 FG% (30.8 3P%) and 3.8 APG.

It’s now “win or go home” for both Fournier and Jokubaitis in the Round of 16. Lithuania takes on Spain and former Knick Willy Hernangomez, while France takes on Turkey and former Knick Shane Larkin (???). Both games will be on Saturday. Go various Knicks!