The Round of 16 at EuroBasket 2025 has been defined by a series of major upsets, but Luka Dončić made sure that trend did not continue. He led Slovenia to an 84-77 win over Italy on Sunday with 42 points in 33 minutes in an incredible scoring display.
Less than a minute into the game, Dončić picked off a pass and was tripped up as he took off the other way. He wasn’t moving super well for a few possessions after that spill, but any concerns about his health were quickly erased by a barrage of buckets. Dončić poured in 22 points in the first quarter alone — double Italy’s 11 points as a team — to help Slovenia build an 18-point lead at the end of the opening frame.
Slovenia would maintain a double-digit lead for most of the game until Italy made a furious comeback attempt in the fourth quarter. In fact, the Italians made it a one-point game with less than two minutes to play on a bucket by Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio.
That was as close as Italy would get, however, as Dončić worked his way to the line on the ensuing possession and calmly sank two free throws to put Slovenia back up by three. After a few hectic trips for each side, Dončić grabbed a key defensive rebound with just over 30 seconds to play and made two more free throws to ice the game.
Dončić finished with 42 points — five shy of his EuroBasket career high of 47 — 10 rebounds and three steals on 11 of 19 from the field. In the process, he joined Nikos Galis (six), Eddy Terrace (two), Doron Jamchi (two) and Lauri Markkanen (two) as the only players ever with multiple 40-point games in EuroBasket history.
For the tournament, Dončić is averaging 34 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.2 assists and ranks first in scoring, 10th in rebounds and second in assists.
This summer did not get off to a great start for Dončić and Slovenia. During a warm-up game against Latvia last month, Dončić was involved in a scary collision under the basket and had to leave the game. He escaped injury and was ready for the start of EuroBasket, but Slovenia lost its first two games to Poland and France, putting qualification for the knockout round at risk.
Since then, however, Slovenia has won four games in a row to advance to the quarterfinals, where they’ll face the reigning World Cup champions Germany on Tuesday. In order to pull off an upset, Slovenia will need another big outing from Dončić, who has shown us time and again that he’s capable of magic.
