HSometimes statistics are deceiving. Luka Doncic’s team did it at his premiere at the Pre-Olympic. The point guard had a triple-double with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, but both he and the Slovenian team had a tough night against Croatia (92-108), which surpassed them and won by 29.
After the first match, Slovenia already has an uphill battle for its presence in the Games. They will have to beat New Zealand this Thursday on the second day to avoid being left out of the semifinals and if they win everything indicates that they will be second in the group, which would probably take on the host Greece.
Doncic missed the nine triples he shot and without his outside success, a Slovenia very dependent on him (they only rested 3:04 despite the large disadvantage on the scoreboard), disappeared in attack. In defense, it never existed. Already in the first quarter he received 31 points. It was even worse in the third: 37. After the first three periods, a very coral Croatia already had 91 points.
Saric also has a triple-double
Dario Saric also had a triple-double (19+10+10), Goran Filipovic added 21 points, Ivica Zubac reached 18 and eight rebounds and Mario Hezonja, in his first game after making his renewal with Real Madrid official, finished with 12 points, six rebounds and eight assists.
The game was suspended for 25 minutes in the third quarter due to the failure of one of the basket clocks. In the end it was decided to remove it and continue with a floor one. Not even that incident stopped Croatia, which never took its foot off the accelerator and ended up running over its rival.
