Major events follow one another for Slovenia at the EuroBasket. The defending champion is expected and despite her first place in Group B, she had to fight in the round of 16, against surprising Belgium.
The Slovenians did not have the time to save their efforts in this match since the meeting was undecided until the middle of the fourth quarter, forcing Luka Doncic (35 points) to struggle to create a sufficient gap, until his serve for Klemen Prepelic’s 3-pointer which gave Aleksander Sekulic’s men a breath of fresh air with less than five minutes remaining.
At the end of the match won 88-72, Luka Doncic could only congratulate the opposing team for their performance
“Belgium played very good basketball. We knew it was going to be a tough game. They fought until the end. But in the last minutes, I think we played a little better. We had a great run. But I congratulate Belgium for the match they made. It was tough, but we won, that’s what counts.”, did he declare. “They played very hard, with great physical potential. They were having a great game. They were in the fight with us, playing physical and they put their shots. They played some great basketball.”
The score does not really reflect the physiognomy of the match and for Luka Doncic, this duel against Belgium, which notably created the surprise in the group stage by beating Spain, was not a gift.
“Honestly, I don’t think it was an easy game for us. Maybe most people said that, but for us it wasn’t. They played with their athletic dimension, and in attack, they really developed beautiful basketball. It didn’t bode easy for us. Fortunately, in the last act, we were able to move up a gear to win,” he notably concluded.
The three-day break before the quarter-finals will do the Slovenians the greatest good, who will face the winner of the duel between Poland and Ukraine this Wednesday evening.
| Luka Doncic | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2018-19 | LAD | 72 | 32 | 42.7 | 32.7 | 71.3 | 1.2 | 6.6 | 7.8 | 6.0 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 0.4 | 21.2 |
| 2019-20 | LAD | 61 | 34 | 46.3 | 31.6 | 75.8 | 1.3 | 8.1 | 9.4 | 8.8 | 2.5 | 1.0 | 4.3 | 0.2 | 28.8 |
| 2020-21 | LAD | 66 | 34 | 47.9 | 35.0 | 73.0 | 0.8 | 7.2 | 8.0 | 8.6 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 4.3 | 0.6 | 27.7 |
| 2021-22 | LAD | 65 | 35 | 45.7 | 35.3 | 74.4 | 0.9 | 8.3 | 9.1 | 8.7 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 4.5 | 0.6 | 28.4 |
| Total | 264 | 34 | 45.7 | 33.7 | 73.7 | 1.0 | 7.5 | 8.6 | 8.0 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 4.1 | 0.4 | 26.4 | |
