Basketball: Slovenia beat Sweden 84:81 (video highlights)
STA, 4 July 2022 – Slovenia finished the first round of qualifying for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup second in their group after scraping past Sweden 84:81 after a nail-biting finish in Stockholm on Sunday. NBA stars Luka Dončić and Goran Dragić scored 51 points between them when Dragić said goodbye to the national team as its best total scorer in history.
Slovenia won four of six matches in the first round with a total of 10 points, which places them in second place in Group C after Finland, which has received 11. Sweden enters the second round with eight points, while Croatia dropped out.
In the second round, starting at the end of August, Slovenia will face Germany, who finished at the top of their group with 11 points, Israel (9 points) and Estonia (8 points) in group J, which also includes Sweden. The top three teams advance to the World Cup, which is held in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.
After crushing Croatia on Thursday, Slovenia could not show the fast pace they became known for, and had quite a hard time coping with Sweden’s defense. Sweden also surpassed Slovenia in returns (38:35) and turnover with points per turnover of 19:11.
Slovenia soon opened a double-digit lead (15: 5) but the home team took the lead in the 17th minute to 30:29 and kept the balance in the court until the closing seconds. Four minutes after the end of the match, the team was equalized to 75:75.
Superstar Dončić scored 31 points for Slovenia on 10-of-20 shots from the field, with 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals, giving him an efficiency rating of 32. He scored 11 points in the third quarter and let Slovenia enter the final part of the game with an advantage of nine points (70:61).
But after going up to 73:61, Slovenia let Sweden come back. The key points for a win in the dying minutes of the match were scored by the Dragić brothers. Zoran scored a three-pointer to 80:79 and Goran took it to 82:81 in the last second of attack, and then continued to make two free throws two seconds before the final buzzer sounds for the final result 84:81.
In what was supposed to be his last appearance for the national team, captain Goran Dragić scored 20 points for a total of 1,581 points in his 81 official matches for Slovenia since 2006, to surpass Jaka Lakovič’s 1,564 points in 86 matches.
When he commented on it for STA, the 36-trout remained modest: “It doesn’t really matter. On the one hand, basketball is a team sport and winnings count, but on the other hand, I’m sure the record will not last long, because here it comes.” magic ‘Luka, who will easily surpass it. “
Regarding Slovenia’s performance, he said that despite the excellent atmosphere created by more than 8,500 fans in the Hovet arena who motivated the home team to further nullify Slovenia’s early advantage and keep up until the end of the match, Slovenia won the match with their experience and knowledge. .
“The matches you need to win are usually the toughest, so we have to be happy and continue on the path we have set,” he said.
When he spoke to STA later, he left the door open for his potential appearance for Slovenia in Eurobasket. “I am tempted to play in Eurobasket,” he said, ruling out that he would be in the August World Cup qualifiers.