The carnage of stars continues at Eurobasket. After Giannis and Jokic, Luka Doncic takes the door. Slovenia, holders of the title, bowed against all odds against Poland (90-87), the latter doing a nice favor to France by joining them in the semi-finals.
“Luka Magic”, below his usual very high standards with “only” 14 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, could not carry his team in the money time, excluded for a fifth personal foul and in fact absent from the floor in the last three minutes of the game. The Dallas Mavericks prodigy had just before missed two free throws when he had the opportunity to bring his own to a length (76-79).
Ponitka as Kukoc
The historic performance did not come from him but from the Pole Mateusz Ponitka (26 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists). The former Zenit Saint Petersburg player, who broke his contract shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, is only the third player in the competition’s history to score a triple-double after the Croatian Toni Kukoc in 1995 and Romanian Andrei Mandache in 2017.
The Poles, who were up to 23 points ahead (54-31), recovered from a violent 16-1 inflicted by the Slovenians in the third quarter (61-60) and were able to bounce back to reach the Eurobasket semi-finals for the first time since 1971.