Luka Doncic and the Slovenian national team’s quest for a berth in the 2024 Olympics did not get off to an ideal start. On Tuesday, Slovenia lost 108-92 to Croatia in their first game of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Piraeus, Greece.
Croatia’s Ivica Zubac and Danko Brankovic bullied Slovenia on the inside, finishing with a combined 33 points on 15-for-18 shooting. Dario Saric added 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, but their leading scorer was Goran Filipovic, who scored 21 points and made six of his seven 3-point attempts. It took Croatia less than five minutes to build a double-digit lead, and they led by as many as 29 points. As a team, they shot 13 for 28 (46%) from 3-point range.
In Doncic’s first non-exhibition game since the NBA Finals ended, he recorded 26 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, but he missed all of his nine 3-point attempts. (Doncic played Slovenia’s final pre-tournament exhibition game, a win over Brazil in Ljubljana last Friday.) Slovenia shot a collective 9 for 38 (24%) from deep and 28 for 71 (39%) overall.
Doncic, whose status appeared murky in the immediate aftermath of the Dallas Mavericks‘ loss to the Boston Celtics because of various injuries, used a stationary bike during a lengthy delay (caused by a shot clock malfunction) during the second half. Doncic logged a game-high 37 minutes.
On Thursday, Slovenia needs to beat New Zealand, the third team in Group A, to keep its Olympic hopes alive. The top two teams in the group will advance to the semifinals on Saturday, and a spot on in the Paris Games will be on the line in the finals on Sunday. Here is the schedule and scores from all Olympic qualifiers.
For Croatia, the group-play stage of the tournament will conclude against New Zealand on Wednesday.
In the event of a three-way tie at the end of group play, the teams will be ranked in order of point differential. Tuesday’s loss was particularly troubling news for Slovenia because of the 16-point margin, but it would’ve been much worse if they hadn’t ended the game on a 12-2 run.
