A little over a month since Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks suffered a brutal 2024 NBA Finals loss at the hands of the Boston Celtics, the Slovenian star suffered another crushing defeat on the basketball court when he failed to lead his country past Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece in the semifinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Greece.
Doncic and Slovenia lost to the Greek squad to the tune of a 96-68 score. The Mavs star, however, gave credit where it was due, praising Greece for playing an incredible game.
Via BasketNews:
“Congratulations to Greece. They played well better than us,” Doncic started. “They have an amazing team.”
“Obviously, they have Giannis, but other pieces are important for them, too. And they are very well coached, so congratulations to them. They outplayed us today,” he admitted.
Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic come up short in Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Doncic led his team against Greece with 21 points on 7/14 shooting from the field to go with seven rebounds and five assists. He also had 10 of his team’s 17 turnovers. In three games in the tournament, Doncic, who was the third pick overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, averaged 27.7 points and 8.3 assists per outing.
As for Antetokounmpo, he had 13 points on 6/12 shooting from the floor to go with four boards and two assists.
Greece also won the finals of the tournament by beating Croatia in the finals, 80-69, to book a ticket to the Paris Olympics — the country’s men’s basketball team’s first appearance in the Summer Olympics since 2008.
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