Giannis Antetokounmpo rests as Greece makes EuroBasket knockout round

Giannis Antetokounmpo got the day off but Greece still rolled into the knockout round of the 2022 EuroBasket after claiming a 93-77 victory over Great Britain on Monday.

21 points by Kostas Sloukas and 17 by Georgios Papagiannis ensured Greece has a top-four place in the Group C standings with a 3-0 record.

There are four groups with six teams in each at EuroBasket, with the top four finishers in each group headed to the knockout stage.

Luke Nelson had 17 points for Great Britain (0-3), while Myles Hesson scored 13, Ovie Soko added 12 and Dan Clark finished with 11.

Greece used a 16-0 run to erase an early seven-point deficit. Great Britain closed within 53-52 in the third quarter, but Greece scored 40 of the game’s final 65 points.

After the match, forward Kostas Papanikolaou, who scored 10 points for Greece, said they “did a great job” in the second half of the match.

“When Giannis is not in the line up, everybody has got to give extra – twice the energy, twice the hustle, twice the things he does on the court,” Papanikolaou said.

Greece’s coach, Dimitris Itoudis, said after Monday’s game that Antetokounmpo “had discomfort a little bit on his knee, nothing major…”

Antetokounmpo is expected to play in at least one of Greece’s final two group-stage games, with the first of those coming Tuesday against Ukraine. The knockout round in Berlin starts on Saturday.