Slovenia spammed Luka Doncic and there was nothing Italy could do about it until Saliou Niang took it upon himself to make it a fight in the fourth. The LA Lakers star had yet another dominant performance as his side advanced to the quarter finals of EuroBasket 2025 by the sin of their teeth.
There has to be a limit to this right? Luka Doncic is in the conversation for best player in the game today but this was ridiculous. The LA Lakers man just came out on a mission to start the game and Slovenia advanced to the last eight of EuroBasket 2025. It was like Italy weren’t even a concern. They were just another victim. That was, at least, until Saliou Niang showed up.
Spamming Luka is a strategy
Luka Doncic had 22 points in the first quarter. To put that in context, everyone else on court including his own teammates scored 18. Slovenia led 29-11 after 10 minutes because Luka had dropped the highest scoring quarter in EuroBasket this century.
Yet there was immediate drama. The LA Lakers man, and really Slovenia’s entire game plan, ran to the locker room as soon as the quarter ended. Doncic had 4 of his side’s 8 rebounds in that quarter and 2 of their 4 steals. The only reason he had no assists was because he was doing all the scoring.
Doncic returned from the locker room to the bench about three minutes into the second quarter. The reason for his absence was unknown but most of the media present guessed he needed a bio break. With him gone, Italy cut the deficit from 18 to 12 points. The utter necessity of Luka to an otherwise so-so Slovenian roster was obvious.
It’s been the same story
Essentially since the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Slovenia has gone to wild places with Luka Doncic’s minutes. He adores playing for the national team and he certainly adds to EuroBasket 2025. You’ve just got to wonder what this level of usage is doing to him long-term.
Luka was averaging 33.4 minutes per game entering this, third overall and the most of any player to reach the knockout stages of the competition. At least in tournaments past he wasn’t the only one racking up those kinds of numbers. Goran Dragic (retired) and Vlatko Cancar (unavailable) would normally join him amongst the top 15 players in minutes per game at a tournament.
It’s also been shown to be a strategy with a ceiling. At EuroBasket 2022 in the quarter finals, Poland found a way to make the cumulative fatigue kick in. Doncic played well against Canada in the same stage of the FIBA World Cup a year later, yet still couldn’t get them over the line. Without help, spamming Luka has yet to prove good enough to get a medal. In the round of 16 of EuroBasket 2025, it was good enough for a 10 point lead at the half.
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A policy of containment
Maybe it was Gianmarco Pozzecco underestimating the defensive task but Italy took a long time to take an obvious approach to defending Luka Doncic. Simone Fontecchio was pushed onto him in a most harrying way. The goal was to frustrate rather than stop Doncic. Wear him down and make him work for every bucket.
Alessandro Pajola provided support but this wasn’t exactly a plan that needed imagination. Going 3.5 on 4 so to speak against every Slovenia player not named Luka Doncic is a strategy that has worked before for others. That includes at this edition of the tournament, where Slovenia lost two of their group games. Luka put up big numbers in those too but the rest of his team couldn’t deliver.
Italy managed to get the lead down to 6 at one point. A thousand crusty old man columns about how this is a team sport were ready to be penned. Then Luka kept scoring and led the way in Slovenia limiting Italy’s tepid offensive game through the remainder of the third. Doncic was finally given a break late in the frame, essentially to give him enough rest to push through the fourth.
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A lovely view from bench
Slovenia continued to punish Italy through the end of the third quarter. So demoralised were Pozzecco’s men that it was hard to fathom them putting up any kind of a fight. Luka Doncic watched on as Alen Omic and Klemen Prepelic had fun offensively.
Slovenia could probably have kept him there. Eventually they decided to put him back on the floor with 8.34 left and the result already looked beyond doubt. The knockout rounds of EuroBasket 2025 were where we expected the spam Luka strategy to finally prove costly. Having only gone 3-2 in group play, it’s not like this team had previously been invulnerable despite his Superman mode.
Saliou Niang became the agent of chaos. His defensive work sparked something from Italy at the other end. Having trailed by 16 entering the final quarter, Italy got back within 6 by the mid-point.
The old guard’s last charge
Nicolo Melli and Danilaro Gallinari have seen plenty of drama playing for Italy. There has been good and bad. There possibly was never quite as manic as this. Melli and Gallo battered ahead, inspired by Niang.
Melli got it done from deep, Gallo on the inside, and Saliou Niang swept up all around him. Italy got it down to one possession entering the final 2 minutes before Simone Fontecchio reduced it to the minimum. What had been a procession for Slovenia, led by the furious march of Luka Doncic, was becoming a collapse.
Niang fouled out for a hard hit on Luka. That, somehow, proved decisive. Slovenia held on as Doncic recorded the first 40 point and 10 rebound game in EuroBasket since Pau Gasol’s epic display against France in 2015. It was enough, for tonight at least.
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