In its fiery rivalry against Spain, France has known its executioners: Pau Gasol in the lead obviously, but also Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez, and now… Juancho Hernangomez. The interior of the Raptors played the match of its life this Sunday evening in the final of EuroBasket 2022, and the Blues have never been able to recover.
If we had been told before the final that Juan Hernangomez was about to turn into Kevin Durant, we would have cried troll. Yet this is what happened this Sunday on the side of Berlin, to the chagrin of a French team completely stunned by the banderillas of the one nicknamed Bo Cruz since he started. in the cinema. 27 points and 5 rebounds on the clock in just 26 minutes, 8/11 shooting including an improbable 7/9 at 3-point (30 evaluation), this is called an avalanche in the jargon. While we were rather expecting his brother Willy in the number 1 danger suit for our Blues, Juancho stole the show from everyone to guide La Roja to a new league title. String after string after string. While the Blues played tall ball with two professional interiors on the field (Fall – Poirier, Poirier – Gobert) and attempted a zone defense on several possessions, Hernangomez really ignited, performing his best imitation of Jordan against the Blazers in 1992 with six 3-pointers scored in the first period alone.
Juancho Hernangomez tonight pic.twitter.com/Y7SmQhwAva
— Nico TrashTalk ???? (@nicolasmeichel) September 18, 2022
Terrible for a French team which probably expected a lot of things, but not that. And unfortunately, even if he calmed down in the second half, Juancho Hernangomez added the baskets he needed to break the meager hopes of a comeback from the Blues. We think in particular of this winning sequence shot + lay up seven minutes from the end to allow La Roja to keep his mattress ten points ahead. Clearly it is on soirée. And even if his brother Willy was logically named MVP of the tournament, it is indeed Juancho who is the great MVP of the final. A sacred symbol for the Hernangomez brothers, who are writing their own story after the huge page written by the Gasol brothers and all their friends. This performance by Juan Hernangomez, somewhere it also sounds like a little individual revenge, he who did not see much of the NBA fields last season and who was tossed from franchise to franchise before being cut by the Jazz at the end of June. Now he will try to bounce back with the Raptors who signed him for at least one year as a veteran. Sergio Scariolo, the coach of Spain and former assistant to Nick Nurse in Toronto, will be able to tell his former colleague all the good things he thinks of Bo Cruz, uh Juancho sorry.
Juancho Hernangomez was simply unplayable tonight. And sometimes, we have no choice but to bow down. While the Blues could have shown a much better face in a lot of areas of the game during this final, there’s not much to deal with a dude who is simply on cloud nine…
Sergio Scariolo’s secret weapon for the #EuroBasket ending: Bo Cruz ????
???????? Juancho Hernangomez
27 PTS
9-11 FG
7-9 3PT
5 REB pic.twitter.com/OMulpnzFyy— BasketNews (@BasketNews_com) September 18, 2022