Luka Doncic equals Olympic points record; Slovenia make impressive debut in basketball

Slovenia Olympic Basketball made history on Monday by winning the first match against Argentina in their Olympic debut. Slovenia registered 118-100 win over Argentina with Luka Doncic putting up a dominating display of basketball. Doncic also created history of his own, recording the second-highest scoring total in Olympic history.

Luka Doncic makes history at Tokyo Olympics

Doncic scored a total of 48 points which put him equal with Australian Ed Palubinskas (Montreal, 1976) for the second-most points ever scored in an Olympic basketball game. He is now only trailing Brazil's Oscar Schmidt, who set the record against Spain in 1988 with 55 points. The 22-year-old could well have broken Schmidt's record had he not been checked out of the game with 4:35 remaining in the fourth.

Tokyo Olympics: Luka Doncic performance against Argentina

Doncic started the game with 17 points in the opening quarter and finished the first half with 31 points and eight rebounds courtesy of which Slovenia lead Argentina 62-42. The third quarter saw Argentina double-teaming Doncic due to which he could only scoring four points and added three assists in the quarter. Doncic scored 18-of-29 from the field, 6-of-14 from the 3-point line and 6-of-7 at the free-throw line. He even had 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in the entire game. Slovenian center Mike Tobey had 11 points and 14 rebounds, while Klemen Prepelič scored 22 points off the bench.

Slovenia has been a country on the rise, winning the EuroBasket title in 2017 and then qualifying for Tokyo by winning one of the Olympic qualifying tournaments earlier this month.  The Slovenians knocked off host Lithuania in the final after Doncic went right to playing for his country after the Mavericks were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. Argentina on the other hand saw Luis Scola scoring 23 points for the team, while Facando Campazzo was the other major contributor dropping 21 points. Doncic and his team will next face Japan in its next Group C game, while Argentina will take on Spain. A win over Japan would likely punch Slovenia’s ticket into the quarters.

(With inputs from AP)

Image: Team Slovenia / Twitter