He was on another planet. He seemed untouchable. His teammate Goran Dragic had even declared that he could become the GOAT one day. After the eliminations of Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic had a boulevard to become the King of Europe. But this Wednesday evening, during the defeat against Poland, the Dallas superstar fell from a very high level…
Before the match, the only reason that could lead us to believe in an upset from Poland was Luka Doncic’s ankle. The phenomenon had not trained on Monday after the victory against Belgium in the round of 16, he who had rather been seen with a pocket of ice at the level of his foot. Unfortunately for the Slovenians, the concerns we had about Luka were legitimate when we see the scenario of this Wednesday’s meeting against Poland. Doncic played 35 of his team’s 40 minutes, but very quickly we felt that we were not in front of the true Doncic. Contenting himself at first with playing the others and distributing caviar, Luka then dived with his whole team during a disastrous second quarter for Slovenia (13-29 for the Poles on the period). That’s when Luka Magic became Luka Tragic, showing his evil face amid Slovenia’s doldrums. Playing on one leg, generally in the tough physically, losing balls and clumsy at the finish, Doncic chained the galleys as we sometimes chain them when we are simply having a bad evening. And when Doncic is having a bad night, he’s the type to go up the towers quickly enough to go and grumble to the referees or reprimand some of his buddies who aren’t doing the job well enough.
If Luka Doncic greatly contributed to the comeback of the Slovenians in the third quarter (24-6 for Slovenia) by being much more sharp, it was only a sunny parenthesis in an evening which belonged to the Poles. The band in Luka – who had nevertheless taken control by leading by five points in the middle of the fourth quarter – ended up collapsing in the face of the resilience of AJ Slaughter and Co. As a symbol, it was when the match changed sides that Doncic received a technical foul for all of his work, before chaining two bricks on the free throw line at 79-76 for Poland. Barely a few possessions later, Luka received his fifth foul, synonymous with expulsion. Hard, very hard for the triple All-Star NBA, forced to watch – powerless – the last minutes from the bench. The last image we will have of Luka on this EuroBasket 2022 is the image of a super frustrated star who sends names of birds to the referees at the end of the match after a foul not whistled on Klemen Prepelic in the dying moments. Not really the conclusion we expected after the madness carried out by Luka night after night during this competition. Doncic has therefore just left Berlin through the back door, with probably the least accomplished performance of his Euro given what is at stake: 14 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 ball losses, 5 fouls, all at 5/ 15 shooting including a small 2/7 at 3-point and 1/4 at free throws. Ugly.
“Physically I was probably not 100%. I received an injection in the third quarter. I had to face a lot of things during this EuroBasket. But that’s not the reason we lost. Today I played terribly, I let my team down, I let my whole country down. »
– Luka Doncic, via BasketNews
Luka Doncic wanted to take Slovenia to the top for a second consecutive European Championship title. But like Jokic, like Giannis, he fell victim to the magic of this EuroBasket, definitely like no other. And that, we imagine that it goes very badly at Luka The Don…
