After standout performances in Greece's first two EuroBasket tune-ups, Giannis Antetokounmpo finally had a bit of a letdown game. Twenty four hours after scoring 13 in just 14 minutes off the bench against Bosnia, Giannis returned to the starting lineup against Ersan Ilyasova and the Turkish national team on Saturday, but he managed just 3 points (1/3 fg, 0/1 threes) and 3 rebounds in 15 quiet minutes as Turkey came away 73-64 winners in Istanbul. That said, even Giannis' quiet games typically feature something highlight-worthy, and in this case his only basket was just that (above). We've seen that spin-and-slam move a few times, eh?
Giannis hasn't been the only Buck piling up highlights this week though. In Vegas for the USA Basketball mini-camp, Michael Carter-Williams held his own in Thursday's scrimmage with 13 points (5/10 fg, 1/4 threes), five rebounds and three assists as his White squad used a balanced attack to come away 134-128 winners (box score). Of the nine guys who suited up for the White squad, only Draymond Green (2 points) scored fewer than the baker's dozen MCW posted.
With the game mostly resembling a layup line there were not surprisingly plenty of highlights. It turns out that having Blake Griffin on your team helps:
Of course, MCW throwing alley-oops isn't entirely new; calmly draining pull-up threes is a very different story. To the video evidence!
MCW with the smooth PU3IT in last night's USA scrimmage. https://t.co/gduGpzAKrF
— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) August 15, 2015
It's probably not worth getting too excited -- he missed his other three triple attempts -- but any suggestion of MCW smoothing out his shaky jumper is a welcome sign. Especially in August.