Package for the match against the United States on Friday evening, Luka Doncic suffers from the thigh, and it would be a crutch received against Spain. The Slovenia star obviously didn’t want to take any risks as Slovenia flew to Japan to complete their preparation for the World Cup.
“It was an old injury that caused me problems in March in the NBA” he explained. “However, we did an MRI. Everything is OK. Nothing serious “.
This will reassure the Mavericks and the Slovenian staff as Doncic averages 22.5 points, 8.5 assists and 7.5 rebounds during preparation. A complicated preparation for the Slovenians due to the many absences, but the leader of Dallas remains optimistic.
“It’s simple, we have to follow the instructions”
“We have seen a lot of good things in the last two matches,” assures Doncic despite the defeats conceded against Spain and the United States. “But at the same time, it became clear that we still have a lot of work to do. When we are focused and doing what we have to do, we can be a very dangerous team. It’s simple, we have to follow the instructions. This is already visible in some areas. Now we’re at the point where we have to do it for 40 minutes. »
For Doncic, the axes of progress are to be found in defense, in particular individually, and on the rebound. The good news is that Slovenia have just one friendly left before their World Cup debut scheduled for August 26 against Venezuela.
“It’s a good thing that we also have a lot of time to train in Japan” concludes Doncic. “We’ve been running out of time lately. That’s why I think we’re going to make progress. I repeat, we have to work on defense, rebounds and concentration. You have to follow the plan. The objective is always the same: to win the competition. Of course, that’s a wish, but what actually happens in the competition is another matter. I’m very motivated myself, and I was even more motivated by my team’s failure in the NBA and Slovenia’s failure last year. »