It might not be the most hyped poster of the EuroBasket 2022 round of 16, but it will still be worth a look. This Sunday at 2:15 p.m., Croatia and Finland will cross swords to try to win a place in the quarter, the opportunity to attend a nice little duel between Jazzmen.
Three wins for two losses. This is the balance sheet of Croatia and Finland after the first round of the Euro. A similar balance sheet but different impressions concerning these two nations. On the one hand, the Croats did not really convince, they who experienced ups and downs to finally finish behind … Ukraine when they were thought capable of competing with Greece for the Group’s top spot. C. As for Finland, they managed to stay in second place in their group dominated by Nikola Jokic’s Serbia, thanks in particular to their demonstration against Poland (89-59) a few days ago. In theory, it is therefore the Finns who will land this Sunday with seeded status against Croatia. In practice, we expect the band to Bojan Bogdanovic for her to be respected.
Exactly, let’s talk about Bojan. If he has NBA players Ivica Zubac and Dario Saric as teammates, the Jazz winger – for the moment anyway – remains the boss of the selection as evidenced by his big performance against Ukraine this Thursday (27 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 4/5 parking). Knowing that he also planted 27 against Italy in the previous match, we can say that the guy is rather hot and that the Finns will have to hang on well to keep pace. But they too have their phenomenon, and in addition he has also been playing in Utah since the transfer of Donovan Mitchell a week ago: Lauri Markkanen. If you’re looking for a reason to explain Finland’s fine second-place finish in the first round, here it is. Almost 25 pawns on average, more than 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal per game, all at more than 48% in shooting, 42% in 3-pointers and 93% in free throws. Very very heavy on the part of Lauri, and we imagine that he does not really want to stop in such a good way.
Croatia against Finland in the round of 16 of the EuroBasket, it is scheduled for Sunday at the start of the afternoon. The Croats will start as favorites despite their third place in the first round, but something tells us that the Finns have the means to mark the surprise.