Atlanta Hawks Kristaps Porzingis Dominates in EuroBasket Matchup Against Estonia

After a rough outing on Wednesday, Kristaps Porzingis and Latvia bounced back in a comeback effort to beat Estonia in EuroBasket Tournament play. Early in the game, Estonia held a 12-point lead and led for 27 minutes before allowing a 12-0 scoring run by Latvia, after which they never looked back. This was a more physical, defensive-based game, as both teams struggled to shoot the ball well and committed nearly 30 fouls each, resulting in over 20 free throws each.

As for Porzingis, however, he delivered a significant bounce-back performance, finishing with 26 points, seven rebounds, and two blocks in just 27 minutes of play. He was very efficient in his performance today as well, finishing with 8/12 (66.7%) field goals, 8/8 (100%) 2-point field goals, and 10/13 (76.9%) free throws. I still would like to see him working on his three-point shot, as he went scoreless from three after attempting four this game, compared to five in the previous game.

Porzingis’ defense got a lot better in 2H, prob his best level of the summer.

Outside shot is still off.

But he’s putting in work in the paint:

pic.twitter.com/y58vhK3VTN
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) August 29, 2025

Defensive performance for Porzingis

Kristaps gets the block on one end and earns two FTs on the other. pic.twitter.com/pTA2lRRITu
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) August 29, 2025

Defensively, Porzingis showed that he can be a bit of a wall for anyone who has to go against him on offense, as he got two blocks in today's game. Most guys who go up against Porzingis will likely struggle, as he has a 7-foot-6 wingspan, which was the longest of his draft class 10 years ago in 2015. He stands at 7-foot-2, meaning he will likely tower over anyone he goes against, as we saw today.

As far as Latvia's team performance goes, it was honestly a night and day difference between the two halves as they found themselves down by four at half. In the second half, Latvia forced Estonia into nine more turnovers, finishing with 16 after having seven in the first half, and came away with nine steals and three blocks as a team. Estonia found themselves shooting 44% from the field as a team in the first half and 50% from three-point range. However, they then shot 39% from the field and 35% from three-point range in the second half, getting outscored 34-28.

Offensively, Latvia continued to struggle with shooting from three-point range, as they shot 14% in the first half and 18% in the second, which has been a problem for them the last few games and has finished both games in tournament play shooting below 40% as a team, which is not going to get you far. This is part of the reason they have found themselves down by significant amounts in the last two games, not to mention that Estonia was playing without their go-to center, Maik-Kalev Kotsar, who could have made things more challenging for Porzingis to dominate inside.

To improve upon this performance for Latvia, consider stopping the habit of settling for so many outside shots, as it is clear this is not one of the team's strong areas and has nearly cost them two games in the tournament so far. Another area they could also improve is taking care of the basketball, as they allowed 15 points off turnovers, which nearly proved costly for them in the end. They also need to play more consistently on defense in the first half, so these deficits aren't constantly there to overcome.

Latvia and Porzingis will play again on Saturday, August 30, at 10 AM against Nikola Jokic and Serbia.

Atlanta Hawks Kristaps Porzingis Dominates in EuroBasket Matchup Against Estonia

Defensive performance for Porzingis

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