'I played terribly': Luka Doncic, Slovenia stunned in EuroBasket tournament
The Mavericks' Luka Doncic joined Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic as NBA superstars who were bounced in the knockout rounds of EuroBasket, as upstart Poland defeated Doncic's Slovenia, 90-87, on Wednesday. The Polish team held Luka to 14 points and forced him into six turnovers as it withstood a furious late rally from the defending champions and advanced to face France in the semifinals.
Doncic played with an injured back, but he made no excuses after the game.
In 2017, Slovenia won the EuroBasket tournament behind MVP Goran Dragic and Doncic, who made the all-tournament team at 18. But this year the lightly regarded Poland team, which entered the tournament as long shots (50-to-1 odds to win it all), crushed the Slovenians in the first half.
It has been 51 years since Poland made a EuroBasket semifinal. Their team doesn't feature an NBA player, but they took down a star-laden squad. Slovenia has Doncic, Dragic and Vlatko Cancar of the Denver Nuggets.
Earlier, the heavily favored Serbian team featuring reigning NBA MVP Jokic lost to Italy, which has just a handful of players with NBA experience. Germany, a 17-1 shot to win the tournament, beat two-time MVP Antetokounmpo and Greece behind Dennis Schroder -- still un-signed as an NBA free agent -- and Orlando rookie Franz Wagner.
That is indeed rare for EuroBasket. Although the influx of European players to the NBA is a recent phenomenon, if you look at recent EuroBasket MVPs, it's a list of former All-Stars: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol (twice), Tony Parker, Dragic, and Andrei Kirilenko. The lone exception was Juan Carlos Navarro, who was a huge star in Spain if not the NBA.
This could mean that superstars such as Doncic are burned out after an 82-game NBA season and playoffs, or it could simply mean that the level of play across Europe has increased that even an NBA All-Star can't take his opponents for granted.
Regardless, Poland's Mateusz Ponitka played like a superstar against Slovenia, putting up 26 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
Ponitka and his teammates will get another test on Friday when they face Rudy Gobert and France in the semifinals. But it sounds like they've decided, hey, let's go for the gold.
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