VICTORY SMILE: Antetokounmpo beams as ‘DESTROY’; Doncic helps Greece reach Olympic qualification final

Greece moved one victory from the Paris Games, eliminating Luka Doncic and Slovenia 96-68 Saturday from the semifinal of the Olympic qualifying competition. Thomas Walkup had 19 points, Giannis Antetokounmpo added 13 points in 21 minutes.

Doncic ended the game in Piraeus, Greece with 21 points, first time the two NBA megastars faced each other for their senior national teams.

The game was among eight semifinals scheduled to decide the men’s basketball field’s last four slots for the Paris Games.

With the Paris Olympics slot going to the winner, Vasileios Toliopoulos added 14 points for Greece, which will meet the winner of the Dominican Republic and Croatia on Sunday in the final of the Greece competition.

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Other semifinal games are scheduled for Saturday at Puerto Rico, Spain, and Latvia.

Played through injuries in the NBA Finals for the Dallas Mavericks in their five-game loss to the Boston Celtics, Doncic averaged 31 points in Slovenia’s first two qualifying games. But on Saturday against Greece’s major front line he came out flat.

Greece led 32–14 at the end of the first quarter and had scored 13 points straight, therefore preparing Slovenia for early pressure.

Greece’s lead rose to 23 points in the second quarter; Slovenia used a late surge to bring it down to 47-33 at the intermission.

Once more fast, Greece began the third quarter on an 11-3 run to gain some ground and kept a 16-point advantage into the fourth.

For the contest, Slovenia fired just 43% (23 of 54) from the field. That contrasted with 54% (34 of 70), Greece, which also had a 38–25 rebounding edge.