Rumors

The first day of the Round of 16 at FIBA EuroBasket 2025 ended with the tournament's biggest surprise. Heavy favorites Serbia, led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, were upset by Finland 92-86 and eliminated. For the second EuroBasket in a row, Serbia's campaign ended in the Round of 16. In 2022, they were knocked out by Italy, 94–86. This means Jokic remains without a EuroBasket medal.

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Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points (8/24 FG) to take down Jokic and Serbia, but the hero of the day could also be called Elias Valtonen with eight straight clutch points at the end of the fourth quarter. Nikola Jokic had 33 points (9/13 FG) and eight rebounds for Serbia, but that was not enough. He and Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic combined for 53 out of Serbia's 86 points in the game.

BasketNews

In the biggest Eurobasket upset so far, the Olympic bronze medalist Serbia is out of the tournament after losing to Finland, and coach Svetislav Pesic explained why a key point, which was among the biggest concerns of the scouting, decided the outcome. As he said in the press conference: “Congratulations to Finland. We knew before the game how the Finnish team is playing: energy, transition, shooting, and offensive rebounds”.

EuroHoops.net

The last two words are the most important, as Pesic elaborated: “They are the best team in offensive rebounds per tournament, 16 per game, and tonight they got 20. So it’s an opponent that we could not underestimate. We didn’t find a solution for the offensive rebounds, so we lost the game despite Finland shooting 41% and they ended up having 92 points”. Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic echoed his coach: “We didn’t come to the game ready, it starts from me as the youngest one. I was not ready from the jump. As the coach said, they got 20 offensive rebounds, which is unacceptable. We were prepared well, we watched the film, but they were more physical than us. They simply had more shots. They are more aggressive, more humble, so what else can I say?”.

EuroHoops.net

EuroHoops: End of the tournament for Nikola Jokic and Serbia #Eurobasket

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EuroHoops: 🇷🇸😲 Serbia has been eliminated in back-to-back #EuroBasket tournaments in the Round of 16, scoring exactly 86 points each time!

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The Lithuanian national team joined Turkey and Germany in the 2025 EuroBasket quarterfinals after defeating hosts Latvia in Riga. Led by Arnas Velicka’s heroics, Rimas Kurtinaitis’ side prevailed 88-79 at the Xiaomi Arena, eliminating the home team despite Kristaps Porzingis’ standout night. Velicka delivered an outstanding performance in the absence of the injured Rokas Jokubaitis, orchestrating Lithuania’s offense and closing the Baltic derby with 21 points, 12 assists, and five rebounds. Azoulas Tubelis added another double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Deividas Sirvydis had his best EuroBasket showing, contributing 18 points. Interestingly, Jonas Valanciunas logged fewer than 10 minutes but still managed to score nine points. On the other side, Porzingis had a monster game with 34 points and 19 rebounds for a PIR of 39, before fouling out in the final minutes. Only Arvydas Sabonis (23 v Greece in 1995) and his fellow countryman Andris Biedrins (20 v France in 2009) have grabbed more in a single EuroBasket game over the last 30 years.

EuroHoops.net

On the final day of group play in Riga, the much-anticipated duel between Alperen Sengun and Nikola Jokic lived up to the hype, showcasing two of EuroBasket’s brightest stars. Both big men delivered a spectacular performance, but Sengun proved decisive down the stretch, leading Turkey to a 95-90 victory over the three-time NBA MVP and his Serbian team.

EuroHoops.net

So give us a bit of a behind the scenes look if you can. What's the rating system like? How do you guys go about putting together ratings? Ronnie 2K: Yeah, there's 30 some-odd mini ratings and mini attributes that get cooked into a formula, and it's based purely on performance on the court. In some cases, it's based on, like the young guys, right? We don't have a ton of sample information of them playing against other NBA people. So their's can kind of dramatically increase or decrease based on performance as you would expect and then the people that have been in the league for 10 or 15 years. It's a little bit more sticky, right? Like they're rating is kind of what you would expect. LeBron and Steph. I think they're both down one point from last year. People like Giannis and Jokic have stayed about the same. You would expect that, but like somebody like Cade Cunningham, whose in year three or four and missed a good chunk of the early parts in his career just jumped up six points. [Victor Wembanyama] hen we jumped up six points, so there's a lot of people that are going to grow.

Clutch Points

The the most controversial ratings list I've seen so far is the mid-range jumpers list. That one, a lot of people seemed to react to it with Nikola Jokic being number one, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander technically being ranked fifth and then Kawhi Leonard not being ranked anywhere in that top ten. Ronnie 2K: Yeah, let me talk about that. I think a lot of people see things in terms of volume or feel and both of those are wrong. What it really is based off of is per-36 or whatever metric that we have that's based on how often they're shooting it and how successful they are shooting it. I saw this example: I think if you look at the three-point list, it's actually even more relevant. You have Isaiah Joe, who's not even a starter on the Thunder, gets about 20 minutes and I think he's 5th on that list or something like that. You're like why and it's because his per-36 numbers are behind only Stephen Curry percentage-wise and in terms of volume, he shoots I think he makes like five every 36 minutes or something like that uh so yeah a lot of it's based on on per-36 as opposed to like pure volume.

Clutch Points

On top of that, Nikola Jovic gets to share the floor with the Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic. The Heat forward admits that spending the summer with Jokic is an immense experience. "I learned a lot from him, offensively and defensively," Jovic told BasketNews. "Playing with him is just easy. He's the best player in the world. He knows what he's doing." "If you're in the right spot at the right moment, he'll find you. So it's easy to play with him. He's so smart, so talented that it's really easy to play with him," Jovic added.

BasketNews

You often defended Melo throughout his NBA career when he got criticized in Denver and New York. How George Karl and Phil Jackson’s criticisms about Melo land with you? Boeheim: “Well, the thing I think about the NBA is that he made every team that he was on better than they were. Whether it was Denver or the Knicks, he made them better. They had to go up against the Lakers and the Spurs in Denver. They couldn’t do it, but he made the team better. That’s all you can do sometimes as players. You can’t make a team a championship team by yourself. You have to have a lot of parts to it. His time in Denver, there were some great teams with the Lakers and the Spurs. He made them better, and that’s all you can do as a player.”

SportsKeeda

Unbeaten Serbia got the 82-60 win over winless Czech Republic with Aleksa Avramovic having 14 points, Filip Petrusev 13 points, and Nikola Milutinov adding 12, while Nikola Jokic (6 p., 7 r., 4 as.) getting some rest. Vasa Micic got an injury scare, but coach Svetislav Pesic and Micic himself, speaking to Serbian television, confirmed that he is ready to go, so the issue at the press conference was the upcoming game against Turkey.

EuroHoops.net

Michael Porter Jr: Hey, you talking about confidence? I know nobody’s been in the gym more than me. I know nobody has put up more shots than me. If there was somebody—if I had a teammate that I knew for sure worked harder than me, then okay. But like, I know from a young age I’ve been in the gym. Every team I’ve gone on, I’ve worked the hardest. So yeah, I had some unfortunate injuries and stuff

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