Theme of the game: Slovenia vs. Lithuania in the EuroBasket group stage
WHO: Slovenia vs. Lithuania
WHAT: The opening match between Luka Dončić and Slovenia in the group match for EuroBasket
WHERE: Cologne Arena, Cologne, Germany
WHEN: 10:15 a.m. CT
HOW TO: ESPN+
THE STORY: The 2017 EuroBasket tournament ended with Goran Dragić, Luka Dončić and Slovenia bringing home the title for a country of just over 2 million people. Five years later, they hope to repeat the story, only this time as strong contenders for promotion, despite playing in the “group of death”.
Group B of six teams contains strong teams: France, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and even Germany, who defeated Slovenia last week. Luka Dončić and his compatriots will have a tall task ahead of them, starting with Lithuania, literally a very tall team.
Led by NBA giants Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valunciunas, the Slovenian team must work together to keep the Lithuanians off the boards. These two teams last met last summer in the qualification match for the 2020 Olympic Games, where Slovenia won in an outstanding game.
Luka Doncic will need to put in a fantastic game for the Slovenian team to win, but after his poor performance against Germany in last week’s World Cup qualifiers, it is reasonable to expect him to be successful. Think about how many bad games Dončić has returned to the NBA. Dragić will also have to play better; he fought against the Germans.
While you’re watching basketball today, know that at halftime of the Germany-France game, Dirk Nowitzki will be retiring his FIBA jersey, which is a really special honor that I’m pretty sure has never happened before. We’ll report back here this afternoon.
Join us here in the comments as you’ll be able to watch the game on ESPN+. Basketball is on all day, so enjoy the opening games!
Click here for our latest podcast episode, this time with DNVR’s Adam Mares. He traveled to Serbia and we discussed that, Yugoslavia’s basketball legacy, Serbia vs Greece (Jokić vs Giannis) and a lot about Luka Dončić. If you don’t see the embed below, Click here or find the Mavs Moneyball Podcast on your favorite app.