Defending champion Slovenia unexpectedly fails at the European Basketball Championship. After a false start and catching up, the team around NBA star Luka Doncic is narrowly defeated by the blatant outsider Poland. The weak Doncic accepts the defeat with emotional words.
NBA superstar Luka Doncic has taken the blame for the completely surprising EM from the Slovenian basketball players. "I played terribly today. I let down my team and the whole country that supported us. It's totally on me. I have to watch this game and get better," said the 23-year-old from the Dallas Mavericks after the 87-90 loss to outsiders Poland.
Doncic will leave Berlin like Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece and Nikola Jokic from Serbia without a medal. The three national teams were considered the big contenders for the title. For the German team, which plays against Spain on Friday evening (8.30 p.m. on RTL, Magentasport and in the ntv.de live ticker), the supposedly thickest chunks on the way to a title sensation are already out of the way.
The Slovenians disappointed across the board until the break. Strongly playing Poland, overtaken by Finland (59:89) and Serbia (69:96) in the preliminary round, led at times by 23 points. Then the favorites increased and turned the game around in the third quarter (24:6), but the Poles around their best thrower Mateusz Ponitka (26 points) fought back. Doncic showed his weakest performance of this tournament so far. In the end there were 14 points, eleven rebounds and seven assists, but the playmaker also lost six balls and made numerous mistakes. In addition, the star had to leave early in the final phase after five personal fouls.
"I wasn't at 100 percent. I got an injection in the third quarter," admitted Doncic. His team of NBA pro Goran Dragic and center Mike Tobey was considered a big contender for gold. Doncic in particular looked outstanding before the quarterfinals with three games in a row in which he scored at least 35 points. Now the series broke, it was followed by the sudden end. "This EM was great to watch, the level is incredible," said Doncic, whose nickname is "Luka Magic", of the general level. France and Poland (5.15 p.m. on Magentasport) as well as Germany and Spain will now contest the semi-finals on Friday.
