European Basketball Championship: Serbia fails in the round of 16 against Finland
The big favorite for the title was eliminated in the round of 16 of the European Basketball Championship. Serbia suffered a surprise defeat to Finland 86-92 (48-44) on Saturday evening at the Xiaomi Arena in Riga. This means that Nikola Jokic, the current best player in the world and three-time NBA MVP, is no longer in the tournament.
The Serbs struggled with injury problems throughout the tournament, with captain Bogdan Bogdanovic sidelined early on.
In the match against Finland, which just a few days ago had clearly lost to Germany 61-91 in their final group match, the World Cup runners-up never managed to pull away decisively. Lauri Markkanen took over for Finland in the decisive phase. The NBA star from the Utah Jazz put up a total of 29 points. Jokic scored 33 points on the other end. But that ultimately wasn't enough.
Finland will now face the winner of the France-Georgia match in the quarterfinals. Serbia, meanwhile, would have been a possible opponent for Germany in the semifinals. The German team had previously won its round of 16 match against Portugal 85-58, but also showed problems on offense for three quarters. It wasn't until the last ten minutes of the game that they finally made a three-pointer – in the meantime, the team of head coach Alex Mumbru, who returned to the bench, missed 22 attempts from distance. The world champions will now face either Italy or Slovenia in the quarterfinals. The duel takes place on Sunday (5:30 p.m., Magenta Sport). All eyes will once again be on Slovenian superstar and playmaker Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Finals host Latvia was also eliminated. Latvia lost to Lithuania 79-88. In an extremely emotional match in the sold-out Xiaomi Arena, the Lithuanians, who led by around ten points for almost the entire game, held their nerve despite the deafening noise from the stands. Turkey also advanced to the quarterfinals, having struggled to a great extent in their 85-79 loss to Sweden.
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