Milwaukee Bucks: Ersan Ilyasova helps Turkey to comeback win over Czech Republic

Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova continued his preparations for crucial international games with Turkey with a warmup win over Czech Republic.

While a return to action with the Milwaukee Bucks is still a few weeks away for veteran forward Ersan Ilyasova, the 31-year-old is continuing to enjoy ideal preparations with his national team ahead of crucial upcoming FIBA World Cup Qualifying games.

Ilyasova will be one of a number of NBA players suiting up for Turkey in those games against Montenegro and Slovenia in the next seven days, yet before those competitive games even roll around, he has already enjoyed two strong performances in an exhibition event in Hamburg.

The Turkish national team joined their counterparts from Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic in the VTG Supercup, a warm-up event that has taken place in recent days.

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Following a standout performance in what proved to be an ultra comfortable win for Turkey against Germany on Friday, Ilyasova and his Turkish teammates were back in action on Saturday for a matchup with the Czech Republic.

Current and former Washington Wizards Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely would stand out as the most familiar names to NBA viewers among the Czech squad, and as a group, it’s fair to say they gave the highly favored Turks all that they could handle.

The Czechs started fast, opening up a significant 23-point lead in the early stages of the second half, yet as they had done on Friday against Germany, Turkey proved to have plenty left in the tank as they produced an exceptional finish to turn the game around and prevail with an 89-80 victory..

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Cedi Osman was again key to this as he chipped in with 24 points, but although he wasn’t quite as productive as in his previous outing, Ilyasova contributed more than his fair share to his team’s efforts once again.

Ilyasova chipped in with 12 points, five assists and four rebounds, which included a couple of smooth looking three-point makes for the veteran.

Following up a six-assist game against Germany with another five on Saturday was particularly impressive, as Ilyasova continued to demonstrate his willingness to find teammates, along with his perfect understanding of when to kick out or lob a pass over the defense to a teammate in the post.

Those elements of Ilyasova’s game are likely to be primary focuses of Mike Budenholzer and his staff on the offensive end, as a version of Ilyasova who can knock down the long-ball consistently, and keep the ball flowing beyond that should be incredibly useful to the Bucks.

With confidence likely now sky-high for Turkey, their focus will now begin to shift to their crunch qualifiers, with Montenegro set to visit the Turkish capital of Ankara on Friday, and Turkey then hitting the road to match up European Champions Slovenia in Ljubljana on the following Monday.