Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Greek national team started the European Basketball Championship with a win on Friday (September 2nd, 2022), but made life difficult for themselves.
The team around the twice most valuable player of the NBA won in Milan against Croatia 89:85 (46:30) and successfully started the hunt for the title. In doing so, Greece lost almost a whopping lead.
The Greeks were already leading by 17 points in the third quarter, but allowed Croatia to gain two points again. Led by Antetokounmpo, they got the curve in the closing stages.
Of the Forward the Milwaukee Bucks played with 27 points and eleven rebounds strong. Native American Tyler Dorsey, future teammate of Maxi Kleber at the Dallas Mavericks, also scored 27 points. Jaleen Smith from Alba Berlin was the top scorer for the Croatians with 22 points. NBA professional Bojan Bogdanovic of the Utah Jazz got 19 points.
Serbia sovereign against the Netherlands
Co-favorite Serbia around Nikola Jokic, MVP of the NBA in the past two years, started with an ultimately clear victory. In the end, Jokic and Co. easily won 100:76 (51:38) in Prague against the outsiders Netherlands.