EuroBasket 2022: Slovenia against Poland

For many, the Slovenians (the reigning champions) looked like one of, not the main favorite of EuroBasket. Still, after the departures of Serbia and Greece, it was hard to classify this team any differently. Even so, Doncic resigned as champion most effectively and least expectedly possible. In the game against Poland (87-90). The Polish miracle didn't come out of anywhere. Undoubtedly their nine three-pointers in the first half and their utmost concentration on the ball (only three turnovers in the first two quarters) contributed to their sensational success. But the Slovenians should be given their due here as well.

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Start of the match

In the first quarter, Slovenia's primary center Mike Tobey picked up two fouls, forcing Aleksandar Sekulic to bench him late in the first and the second quarter. The lightweight lineup with Prepelic and Muric didn't do much on defense, and that was one reason, if not the main one, why the Poles shot 60% of their shots around the basket and scored a whopping 58 points in the first half. Had their opponents left the court, it's unlikely the Red and White would have been much more efficient.

How did Slovenia's privileged merchant class respond? In essence, with nothing.

Luka Doncic and Goran Dragic, the team's two leading scorers, combined for a modest 15 points in the first 20 minutes. Moreover, Doncic made 3 of 9 from the field. The reasons are obvious: As soon as the playmaker got the ball, the Polish yoke jumped out at him. Luka's dribbling and constant pressure, Dragic's passive (just five shots in the first half), Mike Tobey's need to be careful not to get another foul - all that weakened the Slovenian team, which dealt with Vlatko Ciancar (9 points, 4 of 7 in the first half). The Slovenians' slackness was even more evident in the opponent's half, where they shot from the open field and were embarrassed under the basket.

Meanwhile, the Poles shot with the whole team. Ponitka, Sokolovski, Zyskovski, Balcerovski. It would be blasphemous to say that Poland's lead - especially such a disproportionate one - seemed like a matter of time, all the more so because the originator of that wild, rogue 15-1 run was the Slovenians, specifically Aleksej Nikolic. The point guard didn't get into the game at all, but he did plenty of damage for his team in the two minutes he was given. When Nikolic fouled out on Sokolovsky, the margin was a respectable +5 for a close game in favor of the Poles. After a complete ritual of all the subsequent executions, it grew to "+9. Then Zyskowski and Ponitka increased the lead to "+14". So who had to save the fatherland? Nikolic, of course, blurred an unnecessary three-pointer. The Poles' lead grew to 23 points.

Sekulic immediately replaced him with Dragic, but it's always hard to come back into the game when your opponent plays like that. And even if Goran didn't do it immediately, he was the player to score Slovenia's first points after a nearly 5-minute layup. Next, he got the assist for Ciancar, after which the reigning European champions got going and raced off in pursuit.

The Poles burned through their hard-earned money in the third quarter.

Staring at the frenzy of the long-term Polish artillery, a secret question lurking in my mind: When would it end? And as often happens, it ended abruptly and immediately.

In the third quarter, the Poles shot 0 of 11 three-pointers. On the one hand, their opponent came out with a completely different attitude, with, say, Jaka Blazic getting under A.J. Slaughter's jersey and Luka Doncic placing his large body in the middle of the three. On the other hand, they also became elementarily tired, which couldn't help but affect their focus. In the third quarter, Poland's total team losses reached double digits. Thanks to losses and poor realization, the Polish were unable to score for almost 3 minutes and managed to score only 6 points in one quarter.

Another thing was that the Slovenians weren't far behind them at first. Doncic, who by that point was playing on his shots and was constantly holding on to his hip, continued to miss from beyond the arc. But instead of saving his strength for the end, he started appealing to the refs every chance he got. Instead, Jake Blazic had to pull his team back up, and with two long-range shots, he set the tone for the Slovenians, who not only won the quarter but knocked out their opponent - 24-6. During those minutes, the Slovenians brought back memories of their championship team - the same big man with the trophy, the same effortless play on offense, the same cut-and-pass style that left the ball with the open shooter in the corner, and the big man under the basket. The first half was a miscommunication, attributed to a simple underestimation of the opponent. The only troubling thing was the apparent health problems of their leader: Doncic, who was injured, looked twice as heavy, missed too many passes, missed free throws, and looked very shaky on the court.

The Slovenians were close, but they didn't win.

It's easy to talk about the need for coolness in such situations, but not when you're in the middle of the action. The Slovene team was in a feeding frenzy, in which they drowned. Nine made 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, slightly fewer than the 11 made from beyond the arc that Slovenia shot the entire game. On the other hand, their field-goal percentage was abysmal, hitting 11-of-38 shots (28.9% accuracy). Another extreme was more than mediocre free-throw shooting, 12 of 20 (60%).

Especially worth noting is the total number. The Poles tried to play very accurately and, simultaneously, fouled the Slovenian leaders. At the end of the half, Ciancar dangled four fouls, and Doncic had to leave the court for excessive personal fouls with three minutes left in regulation time. Symbolically, he picked up his fifth foul on Mateusz Ponitka, who became the Polish center and a role model for Luka, showing how a true leader should behave in a game like this.

Ponitka notched a triple-double and became only the fourth player in EuroBasket history with that statistic. Before him, it was done by: 

• Romanian Andrei Mandache (2017); 

• Tony Kukoc (1997);

• Stojan Vrankovic (1993).

Mateusz Ponitka and A.J. Slaughter were the ones who pulled this win for Poland in the last 3 minutes. Slaughter was awful from the field, but his back-to-back baskets consistently resulted in free throws or layups in the closing minutes. And Ponitka showed the same composure. With 84-80 minutes left in half, when the Slovenians still had room to steal the game, Mateusz hit a shot from beyond Tobi's outstretched hand, finally dashing Slovenia's hopes of repeating their historic success at the previous tournament. The end of this quarterfinal was genuinely shocking: who would have believed that Luka Doncic and Goran Dragic could lose the critical minutes of the game, let alone surrender them without a struggle to people who are not even considered stars at the European level? The Slovenian prodigy never proved he could take a trophy as the star around which the team is built. Once again, though, it can be written off as damage.

The top three favorites - Serbia, Greece, and Slovenia - one by one dropped out of the championship, and now France is considered the leading contender for the title. Given the emerging pattern, I would be wary if I were her.