FIBA Update: Mario Hezonja helps spark Croatia to win
Eurobasket opened up Saturday with some close calls for some of the favorites. Luckily for Croatia, Mario Hezonja made some key plays and baskets to win.
Saturday marked the first day of the premiere summer basketball tournament with Eurobasket tipping off in four countries across Europe. Evan Fournier of France and Mario Hezonja of Croatia are part of two teams who should compete for the title and a spot in the Olympics next summer.
Meanwhile in Mexico, Andrew Nicholson and Canada advanced to the second stage of qualifying. Nicholson has struggled offensively coming off the bench, making few waves and stats while getting called on to do a bit more.
Now that Eurobasket has started, we will begin updating how the Magic players are doing throughout these major qualifying tournaments beginning with today’s games:
Hezonja sparks Croatia to win
Mario Hezonja is still a young player and will be coming off the bench mostly for Croatia. As we learned during pre-tournament friendlies though, he is very capable of putting in a lot of points in a hurry. Hezonja’s role is going to be as the sparkplug off the bench.
In Croatia’s 80-73 win over Slovenia, Hezonja was acutely part of the winning play.
With Slovenia pushing into Croatia’s double-digit lead and threatening to make it a close game in the fourth quarter, Hezonja made a couple of key baskets, even tipping in a free throw miss, to help Croatia stave off the late rally.
Hezonja scored 13 points on five-for-nine shooting, including two 3-point makes. He also added six rebounds and played some solid defense.
And he also did this:
Hezonja throughout this tournament, like he did during Summer league, is going to show flashes of what he will become. At this stage, it is more important to see that he can hold his own at this level. Like in Summer League, he has shown he can do that and contribute to a winning team.
Croatia plays Greece on Sunday in a battle of European powers.
France holds off Finland in overtime
Two years ago, Finland was the surprise of Eurobasket. Former NBA player Petteri Koponen broke onto the scene with several big games. This funky squad seemed to turn the traditional Eurobasket powers on their head.
In the first game of this year’s edition, they nearly did that same in upsetting the homestanding France team many have pegged as the favorites.
Sasu Salin hit a jumper with 18 seconds left to tie the game and force overtime. But in overtime, France’s talent overwhelmed Finland (and apparently the FIBA feed to ESPN3).
France outscored Finland 16-6 in the overtime period with Nando de Colo, Tony Parker and Nicolas Batum taking care of business at the end.
Fournier came off the bench and scored eight points on 3-for-7 shooting, adding two assists in his 17 minutes.
This might be a typical stat line for Fournier coming off the bench. Like Hezonja, he will have to score his points in bunches and find ways to contribute outside of his shooting. But his shooting is still his best asset. That is what he will have to continue doing to help his team.
It was not France’s cleanest game for sure. They will have to continue to improve, but a win is a win. France plays Bosnia & Herzegovina on Sunday.
Jannis Timma key to Latvia victory
Latvia also opened up play at home with a 78-67 win over Belgium.
Timma, whom the Magic acquired in the Luke Ridnour trade, scored five points and grabbed five rebounds in 19 minutes before fouling out. One of those shots was a half-court buzzer beater at the end of the first quarter.
Timma is still pretty raw, as the Magic likely knew. He is not coming over this season, but he is still a young player the Magic want to watch and evaluate. He can hold his own, which again is the most important thing to note about young players in these tournaments.
Timma played well enough to start the second half for Latvia with their starter in foul trouble which is a pretty good sign for how he played. Latvia plays Lithuania in a big game in their group Sunday.
Andrew Nicholson and Canada prepare for second round
Canada finished second in Group B at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico with their lone loss coming against Argentina in the opener.
This was about how the team was expected to perform as Canada is a favorite to make it at least to the semifinals. To do so, Canada will still have to navigate their way through the second phase of group play, where the team faltered two years ago after a surprise first place finish and defeat of Argentina two years ago.
This can get complex, so let’s explain Canada’s path here:
Canada is currently 3-1 for the tournament. The last place teams in both groups are eliminated and the results against those teams are wiped out. So heading into the second phase of group play, Canada is 2-1. They will now play all the teams from the opposite group that made it to the next phase — Mexico (the defending FIBA Americas champions), Dominican Republic, Panama and Uruguay.
The top four teams in the standings after these games will make it to the knockout round.
Got it?
Canada kicks off this phase against Panama on Sunday.
Nicholson so far is averaging 2.3 points per game on 4-for-8 shooting. Certainly a lack of volume of shots is going to hurt his numbers. Nicholson is only playing about 10 minutes per game.
There are still calls for him to provide a bit more offensive push and support off the bench.
It certainly feels like Nicholson is playing as he did in Orlando the last two years rather than as he did with Canada for the last few years before some of their bigger name players joined the team.
The team has found success though and is winning, doing what it has to do to make the Olympics next year. Hopefully, Nicholson will find a way to contribute and make his impact ahead of this upcoming season.