Defending champion Slovenia and NBA superstar Luka Doncic surprisingly fail in the quarterfinals of the European Basketball Championship. After a bad start and strong recovery, the 2017 European champion lost very narrowly to outsiders Poland. This is also good news for the DBB team.
Defending champion Slovenia sensationally dropped out of the quarter-finals at the European Basketball Championship after a false start and catching up. The team around NBA star Luka Doncic lost 87:90 (39:58) to the blatant outsider Poland in Berlin. For the first time since 2009, a European champion failed so early, when Russia got caught.
This means that the third heavyweight is not in the semifinals after Serbia with NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Greece with Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) in Slovenia with Doncic (Dallas Mavericks).
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 (14 points) had to leave the field three minutes before the end after the fifth foul.
On Friday (5.15 p.m.) Poland will play France, who eliminated Italy in the quarter-finals with 93:85 (77:77, 38:31) after extra time. The winner will face Germany or world champion Spain in the final on Sunday (8:30 p.m./both MagentaSport).
Italy failed bitterly after the surprise against gold candidate Serbia. Former Berliner Simone Fontecchio, new signing from the NBA club Utah Jazz, was the best Italian thrower together with Marco Spissu (21 points each), but missed the chance in the final phase of the regular season with two missed attempts from the free-throw line and another missed throw to decide. In overtime, the French around top scorer Thomas Heurtel (20 points) made it clear into the semi-finals.
On Sunday, the Italians had unexpectedly knocked out vice European champions Serbia in the round of 16 (94:86). The DBB team shouldn't be sad about Slovenia's elimination. In the group phase, Doncic and Co. showed Germany the limits. In a possible final, the 2017 European champion would have been the clear favourite.
