No NBA team has more players playing in EuroBasket 2025 more than the Miami Heat.
Good news: All of them are heading to the knockout round.
Even though Lithuania bested Pelle Larsson and Sweden, 74-71, Montenegro’s loss to Great Britain Wednesday put Sweden into the knockout stage — rewarding the Heat with three players in the knockout round (Larsson, Nikola Jovic, Simone Fontecchio).
Heading into Thursday — the final day of Group Stage play — Serbia and Italy are both second in their respective groups. Serbia could have clinched the top spot in Group A, but narrowly lost to Alperen Sengun and Turkey, who clinched the No. 1 spot. Italy can clinch the top spot in Group C with a Greece loss to Spain on Thursday.
The Miami Heat are one of four teams — others being the Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks — with three EuroBasket players; two of Washington’s players (Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly) are suiting up for France while Tristan da Silva and Franz Wagner are both playing for Germany.
You could argue that Pelle Larsson has been the Heat’s best player in EuroBasket. Through four games, he’s averaging a team-high 19.8 points, in addition to 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He hasn’t shot the ball well from deep, but he’s looked far more comfortable with the rock in his hands against physicality as the team’s lead ballhandler.
Sweden will play Turkey in the Round of 16 (5:00 a.m. EST) on Saturday, while Serbia will take on Finland (2:45 p.m. EST). We won’t know the full slate until Thursday’s games are concluded. But it’s objectively cool that multiple Heat players will be showcased in the spotlight in do-or-die competition. Pressure creates diamonds!
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Pelle is one of the leaders of Swedish team. He is good, but not great, because of efficiency.
Simone is sometimes on, sometimes off.
Jovic cooled down a bit, partly because Jokic started to play harder and takes more shots, partly because other teams noticed how dangerous he is.
Basically, those are players we know, just in different roles.
In addition, Powell scored 46 points in two games for Jamaica in August FIBA 2027 World Cup pre-qualifiers.
euro basket is a good experience for these guys. cross fingers it translates also to a good, good season for them in the nba. for fans sake hehe (a bit nervous laugh there)