Luka Doncic Ejected as Slovenia Loses FIBA World Cup Match vs. Canada
MANILA, Philippines — With a chance to compete against Serbia for a finals birth on the line, Luka Doncic's Slovenia squad squared off against a Canada roster including many NBA talents on Wednesday. With Doncic getting ejected, Canada came out on top 100-89.
"First of all, congratulations to Canada," Doncic said. "They played great. Very physical game. They have one of the best players in the world, so it was really tough to guard him. I'm proud of my team. Everybody gave one hundred percent when we went out there. We should go back to the hotel with our heads up. I'm just proud of this team."
It was a tightly contested match for all of the opening half, with no team managing to achieve a double-figure lead at any point. The most either team led by was just four points as each side managed to do so. There was a staggering total of 18 lead changes and six ties in the first half.
Canada's defensive approach was more emblematic of Germany's strategy of switching against Doncic to make him have to break a defender down off the dribble, as opposed to Australia's approach of blitzing and double-teaming Doncic — enabling him to hit the short-roller with a pass to enable his teammates to play out of a 4-on-3. However, Canada was more aggressive with pre-rotating help to the strong side on Doncic's drives, while also helping the helper to reduce dropoff passing chances and staying active with the low-man to take the baseline spray-out pass away to the weak-side corner.
As for Slovenia's defensive approach, the team often attempted to shrink the floor by playing off of the weakest floor spacing threat. Dillon Brooks was the frequent choice for this approach by the defense, enabling Doncic to not have to work as hard in the half-court defensively. Brooks went on to make them pay for this at times in the second half.
Slovenia withstood the initial test of executing without the Dallas Mavericks superstar on the floor. When he checked back into the game early in the second quarter, Slovenia narrowly trailed and it remained a tight match. Doncic went to the free throw line with 59.0 seconds remaining in the opening half with a chance to give Slovenia the lead. He split the pair of attempts, resulting in a 50-50 tie heading into the break.
Canada used a a run to take a seven-point lead after Brooks knocked down an open catch-and-shoot 3. It became a nine-point edge when Klemen Prepelic threw away a pass after leaving his feat, giving Canada a wide open breakaway dunk. A slew of mistakes from Slovenia's role players were instrumental in Canada reaching a 14-point lead midway through the period.
After Canada had established its double-figure lead, the defensive strategy became more aggressive to pick up Doncic full-court and double-team in the half-court to get the ball out of his hands. It was clear that Canada had felt it had Slovenia right where it wanted it — resulting in a more aggressive approach in an attempt to seal a victory.
“It was a physical game, and we tried to play physically, but we weren’t able to match their physicality," Mike Tobey told EuroHoops.net. "I don’t know, it’s not our favorite type of game; it’s going to be remembered as a bad memory, one that got away from us. However, at the same time, I think we can learn from it."
Slovenia had converted numerous 3-point attempts to prevent Canada from completely breaking the game open, but Canada often fired back with a make of its own — preventing Doncic's squad from cutting into the deficit in a meaningful way for the remainder of the period.
There was some meaningful movement in Slovenia's favor to end the third period. A made step-back 3 from Doncic with less than a minute left in the third quarter cut Canada's lead to 11, then a pair of made free throws from Prepelic made it a single-figure game. Entering the fourth quarter, Canada led 80-71.
Slovenia had proven unable to rally back in the fourth quarter with Canada continuing to have timely answers. With 7:06 remaining in regulation, Slovenia found itself trailing 92-76. Doncic was ejected shortly after receiving a second technical foul with 6:37 remaining in regulation.
"I think everybody know what my frustration was," Doncic said. "Playing for the national team, it's a lot of emotions. A lot of times I had control myself. I having problems with but you know, reference told one of the guys not going to call following him because he's coming at us. I think this is not fair.
"I know I complain a lot, but I don't think it's fair," Doncic explained. "They've been playing very physical with me, but if you say [what the official said], it's not fair."
Without Doncic in the mix, Slovenia managed to make it a single-figure game with around four minutes remaining in regulation, but the late rally ultimately proved unsuccessful. In the end, it proved challenging for Slovenia to overcome having one active NBA player compared to Canada's full rotation of them.
"Canada has one hell of a team," Slovenia coach Aleksander Sekulic said. "They have different ways to play. They can use small ball. They have two bigs. They have big, strong guards. ... So they have everything. They have everything to go all the way. I think they can match up against the United States, but we'll see."
Doncic finished with 26 points, four rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 29 minutes of action. He shot 8-20 from the floor, 4-6 from deep, and 6-7 on free throws, but was an uncharacteristic 4-14 on 2s. Slovenia received 22 points from Prepelic, but no other player scored in double-figures.
Canada was led by Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists. There was plenty of help for the All-NBA First-Team guard as R.J. Barrett wasn't far behind with 24 points and eight rebounds. Dillon Brooks, who also was ejected, finished with 14 points and four assists, with Nickeil Alexander-Walker scoring 14.
After the loss, Slovenia will now compete against Lithuania; Canada will advance and will face off against Serbia.
