An unceremonious exit at the hands of the Polish national team spoiled Luka Doncic’s EuroBasket return.
For some, Doncic did not meet tournament expectations. His shot wasn’t falling as often as he’d liked (19/59 from three). He was a constant target on defence — when he decides not to bark for calls and run down on that end. He, overall, looked lackadaisical by the standards we’re used to seeing him play.
To top all of that, Slovenia got dethroned before even reaching the medal rounds, just like NBA MVPs Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
All these are fair for a caliber of Doncic, but to officially quantify him on his shortcomings for Slovenia rather than his massive game-to-game impact on the international stage is an injustice. He was a megastar way more often than a liability on any end. And when he’s good, he’s unstoppable.
Which was precisely why he was a constant focus of every game plan.
Doncic saw heaps of coverages thrown at him in the eight games he played in the EuroBasket. Defences centered on Luka had to deploy multiple juxtapositions of resistance — drop, doubles, quick doubles, blitz, hedge, and ice coverages among others — in a sapping attempt to contain his exploits.
In Slovenia’s first game of the tournament against Lithuania, Doncic had his first taste of European teams’ supposed Luka-antidotes. Doncic shot a tournament-low 28.8 per cent (4/14) from the field that game as Lithuania’s defence leaned on their switching, and snap double teams, through their big guys’ mobility — NBA vets Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis — to keep in step with Luka.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Doncic made only a single three in eight attempts versus Lithuania’s coverages and finished with just 14 points. Luka, though, pounced on the Lithuanians’ plan by dishing out 10 assists, his highest assist output of the tournament. It was both a show of Doncic’s ball gravity and his own playmaking genius.
A loss against Jusuf Nurkic-led Bosnia-Herzegovina drew early concerns for Slovenia and Doncic, but what happened in the games that ensued were the ones that appraised, if not re-established Luka’s mastery.
He showed once again that his on-ball prowess was unmatched, unrivalled by a continental mile.
Against eventual bronze finishers Germany, Doncic drop 36 points on 14/25 shooting against defensive matchups that he bullied through the entire game. He followed that up with another banger of a performance — this time, Doncic was so ridiculous that he broke, not just the internet basketball chamber, but also a long-standing tournament record.
Luka fired 47 points on an absurd 15-of-23 shooting to beat eventual silver medalists France, en route to the second-highest scoring output of a player in the history of the EuroBasket. No one has scored more than him in the past 65 years of the tournament. Eddy Terrace of Belgium holds the most points with 63 in 1957.
He clicked from the get-go and never looked back. He torched defenses with his patented step-back threes, barreled through the paint regardless of the French resistance, and manipulated the game in a way that has not been seen for decades in the tournament. Simply put, he was untouchable.
“He’s able to manipulate the game like only a few people probably in the history of the game have been able to do it,” France’s Rudy Gobert said of Doncic.
No statement holds more merit than Gobert’s, whose all of his seven-foot frame was captured in Doncic’s insane fallaway three over the Frenchman’s outstretched arms that blew the internet when it happened.
That 47-point outburst was the top performance in terms of points in the tournament. Meanwhile, Doncic’s 36 against Germany and his 35 versus Belgium in the Round of 16 were the fourth and the fifth highest-scoring outputs in the 2022 EuroBasket, respectively.
In spite of well-articulated defensive schemes, Doncic almost always had his way.
His result against Poland, where he only tallied 14 points, may have been a letdown. Underlying injuries be damned, the Polish team caught the Slovenians on their worst day. But, with the type of performances Doncic left in the tournament, he further cemented his place in the chronicles of basketball.
It’s the second straight year Doncic mesmerised the international basketball scene. He had his ups and downs yet his eminence has been undeniable, no matter what level he plays in.
Some ankle sprains, concussion scares, several stitches in the head, a platoon of coverages to contain him, and national team pressures later, the young tale of Luka Doncic persists — playing the game that already has his name etched in its annals of greatness.
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