No observation round for the Slovenians, who dominate with skill and movement. Luka Doncic is well contained, but his teammates shine like Mike Tobey, imperial under the panels. On the Australian side, Dante Exum and Patty Mills miss open shots, and Slovenia takes off (32-18). Except that Luka Doncic takes two serious faults, including a technical one, and the Boomers take the opportunity to enter their match with Josh Giddey who distributes the game well to go below the 10-point mark (34-25).
Except that the Slovenians are struggling from afar with Samar then Nikolic, who allow them to maintain a 10-point lead (44-34). All under the gaze of Doncic, glued to the bench with his three faults. And when the leader of the Mavericks comes back into play, Slovenia takes off with Doncic who finds Prpelic for the 3-pointers (49-35). It’s Patty Mills who maintains the suspense with five points in a row. -9 at the break for the “Boomers” who avoided correctional.
Josh Giddey maintains hope
After the break, Slovenia resumed their march forward with Zoran Dragic and Luka Doncic finishing (56-44). Except that Doncic stupidly takes his 4th fault and we find ourselves in the same situation as in the 2nd quarter. With the exception that he stays on the field, and the Slovenians go into the zone to protect him from his 5th foul.
A wobbly situation which the Boomers take advantage of to return to -7 thanks to Giddey (56-49). Then it was Dante Exum who chained a huge counter and a dunk to maintain the gap (60-53). Thanks to seven straight points from Giddey, Australia even came down to -5 (66-61) at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Slovenia and Germany qualified
On his cloud, Giddey (25 pts) continues to bring Australia closer, which begins to dream of a hold-up (66-64). Except that it wakes up Slovenia which signs a 7-0 to get some fresh air (73-64). The external clumsiness of the “Boomers” is expensive (5 of 19 from 3-pointers at this time of the match), and Doncic comes back into play with his four faults. Despite this sword of Damocles, the Slovenian genius even signs a huge counter on his Mavs teammate Josh Green and behind Cebasek restores a 12-point lead (78-66).
Australia missed their chance, and Prepelic killed the match at 3-pointers (81-66) four minutes from the end. The relaxation of the “money time” does not change anything, and Slovenia wins 91-80. A success that eliminates Australia, but also Georgia. Undefeated Slovenia and Germany are already in the quarter-finals ahead of their clash on Sunday.
Video summary and stats to come
