Five standout players from first EuroBasket knockout games

Alperen Sengun

The Houston Rockets center continues to dominate and put up huge stat lines for Türkiye, and he did so again in a tough 85-79 win over Sweden.

Sengun recorded 24 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and two blocks, shooting 8-of-16 from the field.

Sweden put up a good fight, as they led by five points at halftime. Later, the game was tied at 76 with only a little under three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Then, Sengun put the game away with a blocked three-point attempt and a fastbreak slam to put Türkiye into the quarterfinals.

Lauri Markkanen

The most shocking result of the day occurred when Lauri Markkanen and Finland knocked out one of the tournament favorites, Serbia, 92-86.

The Utah Jazz forward continued to show off his scoring prowess with 29 points to go along with eight rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Finland never looked like an underdog, as they led for 26:50 while Serbia led for just 11:14. Behind Markkanen, Finland is looking for their first medal at a EuroBasket, and this may be their best chance to finally achieve that feat.

Franz Wagner

The Orlando Magic forward finished with a balanced stat line of 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists in Germany's 85-58 victory over Portugal. Germany actually trailed 32-31 at halftime and then led 52-51 after three quarters.

The lead ballooned thanks to a 13-0 run to start the fourth quarter, and Germany never looked back, outscoring Portugal 33-7 in the final 10 minutes. Wagner didn't even score in the fourth quarter, which shows that Germany is dangerous even when their star doesn't score. They are considered to be the tournament favorite with Serbia eliminated.

Arnas Velicka

The fourth name on this list isn't a household name, but he was the driving force and unexpected hero who helped lead Lithuania past Latvia, 88-79.

Velicka is a 25-year-old guard who has elevated his game in the absence of their floor general, Rokas Jokubaitis, who suffered an injury in the group phase.

Velicka finished with a team-high 21 points and 11 assists, along with five rebounds. He scored 11 of those points in the first quarter, including knocking down three shots from beyond the arc, as Lithuania led wire-to-wire.

On another note, he also has somewhat of a resemblance to Alex Caruso, as seen below:

Nikola Jokic

Despite bowing out of the tournament earlier than expected, the Denver Nuggets star did everything he could and put Serbia on his back in a tough loss to Finland with 33 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.

In only 27 minutes per game, Jokic still averaged 22.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game, while shooting an efficient 66.2 percent from the field.