Two of the Euro Knicks advanced to the quarterfinals of EuroBasket 2017. Not surprisingly, it was Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez.
The Knicks had three players emerge from the group stage into the round of 16 at EuroBasket. Two of them, Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia) and Willy Hernangomez (Spain), are moving on to the quarterfinals.Mindaugas Kuzminskas (Lithuania) is going home after losing to Greece. Despite leading his team with 20 points, Kuzminskas didn’t get enough help from his teammates in the 77-64 defeat.
Porzingis and Hernangomez were both part of blow out wins. They each had much different roles. Latvia crushed Montenegro 100-68, and Porzingis dropped 19 points in 22 minutes.
Hernangomez had his worst game yet, as he only played six minutes in Spain’s 73-56 win over Turkey. The 23-year-old managed just 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting and grabbed only 2 rebounds.
Porzingis takes on Slovenia’s dynamic guard duo of Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic in the quarterfinals while Hernangomez goes up against Dennis Schroder‘s German squad. Both games are on Tuesday.
Kuz is out, but the Knicks presence in EuroBasket is still strong. Hernangomez is likely to win the whole thing.
