Saitama, Japan – Luka Doncic, one of the stars of these Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, he will go home without a medal because on his way he crossed an Australian cyclone called Patty Mills, who with a prodigious 42 points and 9 assists gave Australia the bronze when they defeated Slovenia 107-93 to get the first basketball medal of his story.
His feat breaks the beautiful history of the Slovenian team, conjured in a prodigious summer to climb from the pre-Olympic to glory. He had never lost a game with the great Dallas Mavericks player on the floor, including the Eurobasket 2017, the pre-Olympic and Tokyo 2020, but he broke that streak just in the most important moments: the semifinals and the match for the bronze. In one it was the hand of Frenchman Nicola Batum with a cap for history, and in another the phenomenal performance of Mills.
Australia started as usual, defending intensely with a zone that advanced three players on the triple line to avoid the Slovenian outside shot, fast in the transition and with English striking (2-9, min. 3).
The “Dream Team” is unstoppable!
@usabasketball swept in #Tokyo2020 and got his #Oro 16 in his history of the #OlimpicosTelemundo
Relive the best of the meeting here https://t.co/CWOC2gBb4P pic.twitter.com/kmZLtjPvHs
– Telemundo Deportes (@TelemundoSports) August 7, 2021
Doncic, who was not there, already had his pluses and minuses with Dante Exum, but he scored and from one of his frictions he took out an unsportsmanlike game with which Slovenia turned the game around thanks to a triple by Klemen Prepelic (15-13, min. 7). Australia was not daunted, chained two transitions and a Thybulle steal for an even quarter final (19-20).
Mills hit the bar to pull his own, although the second Slovenian unit resisted with rapid transitions in a full-speed match. The ocean defense was leaking, so it was stopped by coach Brian Goorjian to adjust. It cost them, but they blocked Mike Tobey’s paths while Mills was still in his ‘show’: in the 17th minute, 25 points of Australia’s 45 were his (35-45).
Slovenia reacted, but was always opposed by Mills, who both scored and served balls to Jock Landale; and with a spectacular finish from Matisse Thybulle, who first forced a 2 + 1 and then stole to kill two-handed with a spectacular jump. Doncic was not happy: a protest cost him the technique, already with the meeting in rest time (45-53).
The Europeans still could not find their leader, well covered by Thybulle, and the party was where Australia wanted: at times running, others looking for Landale inside, who beat Tobey all. Not even when the versatile Slovenian-American pivot hit the triple was he very useful to his team, because English immediately did it (52-64, min. 25).
Alien to the human, Mills continued in his private exhibition in search of the bronze medal. He was already going for 36 points to put his team up ten (62-72, min. 28), while Doncic was desperate to try unsuccessful triples, with only one success of his eight attempts so far. Fortunately for him, Prepelic kept his team and 67-78 seemed even short for Australia at the end of the third quarter.
The Slovenians showed that it was short in four minutes, because with a 13-5 run they put the duel in a fist (80-83, min. 33) and with Doncic, it seemed, more intoned. Mills came to the rescue by forcing an unsportsmanlike Jaka Blazic and assisting Exum for the triple, the same one who stole Doncic to hang himself and make it 80-90.
