Shai Gilgeous-Alexander kicks off the encounter with his usual elegance and technique as RJ Barrett tries to play Luka Doncic in defense, and Dillon Brooks tries to shake him up the other side.
But Slovenia’s playmaker finds his matchups, especially against teammate Dwight Powell, and Slovenia’s ball circulation responds to Canada’s more direct play. RJ Barrett ends the first quarter with a dunk to allow the country with the maple leaf to point in the lead (26-24) after ten minutes.
A first technique for Luka Doncic
Dillon Brooks launches Canada well in the second quarter but Klemen Prepelic responds immediately from distance. Well offbeat, the Slovenian shooters are there and allow their team to stay in the game.
Luka Doncic begins to complain more and more loudly to the referees, which causes him to take a technical foul, which cuts Slovenia’s legs a little. Behind a big pass from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Canada tries to get away but Luka Doncic imposes his mixture of power technique.
At half-time, it is therefore a perfect tie (50-50), Slovenia can thank Luka Doncic (17 points) and his shooters (10/17 from afar) including Klemen Prepelic, while the Alexander cousins combine them 23 points.
RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks revive Canada, which makes the first real gap of the match (59-52) and forces Aleksander Sekulic to call a time-out to calm his team. But Canada finds space and pushes the gap to +16 (80-64). Fortunately for them, Luka Doncic and the Slovenians regained their skill from afar and picked up less than 10 points (80-71) at the end of the third quarter. Everything is possible for Slovenia…
Except that the start of the fourth quarter is not really the ideal scenario for the Slovenians, who make a lot of mistakes and see the gap swell again.
Dillon Brooks and Luka Doncic take the door
It goes back to +16 (92-76) for Canada, on a 3-pointer from Dillon Brooks. Except that the new Rockets winger is “trashtalking” and gets expelled, obviously for a few words spoken in the ear of Klemen Prepelic. The perfect opportunity for Luka Doncic to launch the hold-up, especially as Lu Dort collects his fourth foul.
But by forcing a low post on the OKC player, Luka Doncic once again railed against the referees… and took his second technical foul, synonymous with expulsion!
At +15 (92-77) with only six minutes remaining in this quarter-final, we think the mass is said for Slovenia, but Canada loses focus and Jordi Fernandez has to call a time- dead when Klemen Prepelic brings his formation to 11 points (94-83)…
Slovenia, however, fell back below ten points in stride, but the offensive rebounds, especially from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, did a lot of good for Canada. Opposite, it’s Klemen Prepelic who is propelled “go-to-guy” but it’s too short, even if RJ Barrett misses the killer shot several times.
Canada won (100-89) and will face Serbia in the semi-finals of the World Cup. For Slovenia, this is double bad news, because not only is Luka Doncic’s team not in the last four, but in addition it is therefore Germany and Serbia who win the two European tickets for the Paris Olympics.
Highlights and stats to come…
