Giannis Antetokounmpo is seen in the NBA as an underrated passer but for Houston Rocekets’ Alperen Sengun, that might not be the word to describe his passing ability.
Turkey manhandled Greece in the semifinals of EuroBasket 2025, 94-68, to book their ticket to the finals and face Germany. If ever they win, it will be Turkey’s first ever EuroBasket gold medal.
Sengun and company came to the game with one main task – to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Hellas star has been very efficient in the European competition, scoring above 70 percent in all the games he played.
There’s a reason why the Turkish remain undefeated and Antetokounmpo learned it the hard way. The Bucks star scored under 20 points for the first time and shot below 46 percent for the first time, too. Antetokounmpo finished with just 12 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists.
People expected it to be a dog fight but they received the opposite.
“It wasn’t a bad performance from them. We just did our thing. They’re a great team, and they’ve been playing really well. We just went out there and fought. We played more aggressively. We played harder tonight than them. We made the shots. We were just better tonight.”
Sengun, who is emerging as among the top players in the tourney, did not top score for his team but he did not need to do it. He played 33 minutes and finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists.
Alperen Sengun thinks Giannis Antetokounmpo is limited
Turkey needed to prevent Giannis from being freaky and they did. They also stopped his teammates from scoring.
Sengun thinks one area they were able to do it is because Antetokounmpo failed to set his teammates up for better shot.
“He’s not a great passer,” Sengun told reporters after the game.
“He’s an amazing player, you know, but he’s not a great passer. So we just tried to help and jump to close the paint.”
Is Giannis really not a great passer or his teammates just did not convert?
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