{"id":140009,"date":"2025-09-13T11:12:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/140009\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T11:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:12:03","slug":"finland-or-greece-whos-making-it-onto-the-podium-fiba-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/140009\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland or Greece? Who’s making it onto the podium?\u00a0|\u00a0FIBA Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The official EuroBasket app<\/p>\n

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RIGA (Latvia) – After coming out on the wrong side of losses in Friday’s Semi-Final matchups, Finland and Greece will determine who’s going home on a high note in the Third Place Game.<\/p>\n

For Finland, it would mark a historic success and nation’s first decoration, whereas if Greece bow out with a win it would be a repeat of the 2009 success and an end to a 16-year medal drought.<\/p>\n

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Game Predictor<\/p>\n

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STREAM LIVE ON COURTSIDE 1891<\/p>\n

Stream the action on Courtside 1891, with live games and on-demand replays.
\nBlackouts might apply in certain territories.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa<\/p>\n

Find your local broadcaster<\/p>\n

There are several ways for you to watch FIBA EuroBasket 2025 on your TV through local broadcast partners. However, not all broadcasters will show every game from the tournament. We recommend checking the specific game pages to see which broadcasters in your country will be airing the games.<\/p>\n

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Miikka Muurinen is present and future of the Finnish basketball<\/p>\n

It was a fairytale campaign for Finland – one that started on the home court in Tampere, but was well extended into Riga. A nation that not only had never set foot on the podium, but had their first Quarter-Finals outing this year and can now write history with a medal. Lauri Markkanen and co could not overcome Germany for the second time, but sure gave the world champs some trouble. And some other victories, such as the one over Serbia in the Round of 16 show that this team can stir up some upsets. Can they do it again for bronze?<\/p>\n

Greece, on the other hand, sure expected much more from their Semi-Finals bout against T\u00fcrkiye. What was promised as a big battle quickly became a one-way street as Greece never even came close. Giannis Antetokounmpo will be looking to improve on that outing and a possibility of adding the first decoration with the national team to the trophy cabinet is a big motive for the NBA champion and MVP.<\/p>\n

Key matchup: Markkanen vs Antetokounmpo<\/p>\n

There are two major NBA stars on each side and destiny has it that both Lauri Markkanen and Giannis Antetokounmpo operate in the frontcourt. That means we’re bound to see them clash one-on-one multiple times and we’re talking about tournament’s second and fourth best scorers so far. Giannis is averaging 26.8 points per game whereas the ‘Finnisher’ tallies 23.6 on average and the team that features the winner of this head-to-head will be closer to the podium.<\/p>\n

X-factor<\/p>\n

Which basketball philosophy is going to prevail? Finland pride themselves with team basketball; averaging a third-best 22.8 assists per game as a team. Two of the top five three-point shooting teams are clashing and the depth of rosters could prove to be crucial in finding that hot hand.<\/p>\n

What are they saying?<\/p>\n

“Finland plays with a lot of energy, they shoot a lot, they move the ball quickly and we have to be ready. It is not a disappointment to be in the four best teams in Europe after 16 years. We should have the energy for Sunday. This match is a big deal and we are facing a very good team” – Vassilis Spanoulis, Greece<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m very proud of this group. They showed why they\u2019ve been in situations like this before and managed to win. We will learn a lot from this, for sure, we weren\u2019t perfect in the Semi-Finals. On the other hand, we can be proud the focus is on Sunday\u201d – Lassi Tuovi, Finland<\/p>\n

What else to read<\/p>\n

\"\"Beyond the statsheet: Kostas Antetokounmpo making big impact\"\"Trendsetters in Europe: Finland’s basketball revolution \"\"<\/p>\n

Game Predictor<\/p>\n

Predict the winners, score points and win prizes!<\/p>\n

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FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The official EuroBasket app Download Now RIGA (Latvia) – After coming out on the wrong side of losses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-140009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}