Did Poland use wild strategy to contain Luka Doncic, Slovenia in Eurobasket?

The post Did Poland use wild strategy to contain Luka Doncic, Slovenia in Eurobasket? appeared first on ClutchPoints.

Luka Doncic looked very good in Slovenia’s first game in Eurobasket, as he put up 34 points on 7-14 shooting from the field — doing most of his damage from the free-throw line with a 17-19 showing from the charity stripe. Alas, Slovenia could not have thought of experiencing a worse start to the competition, as they took a humbling 105-95 defeat to start their run in the tournament with a record of 0-1.

Doncic did not look comfortable at all, however, for the entire game. In fact, he had his usual bouts with frustrations directed towards the officials. Now, this is nothing new for the Los Angeles Lakers star, as he is constantly bickering with referees. But it got to the point where his emotions overwhelmed him and his entire team, paving the way for Poland to take care of business.

Whatever the case may be, Poland big man Dominik Olejniczak did not think that it was his team’s intention to ruffle Doncic’s feathers, although it did help that the Slovenian star wasn’t able to keep his composure for most of the night, particularly in the fourth quarter — out of desperation perhaps, especially after coming off a discouraging blowout defeat in their exhibition contest against Serbia a week ago.

“No, [frustrating Doncic was] not necessarily [part of the plan]. We just played basketball, and some of us also got a lot of emotions. Like I said, it’s the first game of the tournament, everybody wants to win. It’s a very important game for every team. So, the emotions sometimes take over,” Olejniczak said, via Basketnews.

For context, the Polish big man gave Doncic a hard blow during a fight for a loose ball in the fourth quarter. The Slovenian star did not take too kindly to being whacked across the face and onto the ground, triggering an altercation.

It may have been Poland that was able to take advantage of the scuffle, but it doesn’t mean that this was part of the plan. Nonetheless, it worked.

Give Luka Doncic some help, Slovenia

It’s safe to say that Slovenia’s basketball program hasn’t been churning out the quality of players that could help maximize Doncic’s talent. It wasn’t too long ago when Slovenia nearly made it to the gold medal game during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, instead settling for a fourth-place finish. But now, they lack the depth to surround Doncic, and their defense has been very unsightly.

They allowed Poland to shoot over 58 percent from the field, and, simply put, is not a recipe for success.

Related: Poland star hits Luka Doncic’s Slovenia with blunt reality check in EuroBasket

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