The Lakeshow Review

After a string of great performances on the international stage, Luka Dončić and his native Slovenia came back down to earth at the hands of Nikola Jokic and his Serbian side. It wasn’t a particularly close game either, with Serbia prevailing by a final score of 106-72. The game was in Team Serbia’s control the entire way with Slovenia failing to keep up with the skill and pace of their opposition. Dončić had looked mighty impressive in the last couple of games that he played, but on this one, against a strong opponent, he did struggle a bit. But so did the entire Slovenian squad, who were completely outmatched by a more balanced and talented group, one led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

Luka Dončić had a relatively decent game, finishing with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. He once again struggled shooting the deep ball, tallying just two makes on 10 attempts. Similarly to last game against Great Britain where he had an off night shooting the three. As is customary for Luka, he did get off to a hot start, scoring 11 points in the first quarter, keeping his side within striking distance. But Serbia’s overwhelming talent kept on pouncing, and by halftime they’d grown their lead up to 28 points. Serbia boasts a very talented roster, one that features no shortage of NBA talent, including the aforementioned Jokic, the Heat’s Nikola Jovic and the Clippers’ Bogdan Bogdanovic. They have no trouble scoring the basketball, even when Jokic isn’t involved. In fact, it was Jovic who led the way with 18 points and 7 boards, alongside Bogdanovic, who scored 14 points on 4-5 from three. Jokic was relatively quiet, scoring 10 points and grabbing 8 boards. He did however control the tempo early on and was instrumental in growing his team’s lead.

Serbia made sure to clamp down on Luka defensively, often collapsing the defense on his drives to the basket. Slovenia doesn’t have the personnel to make defenses pay in that regard. They don’t have the shooters to space the floor, nor do their other players operate aggressively off ball. Against talented teams like Serbia, Slovenia should look to play aggressively, and they certainly didn’t do that. It is just an exhibition game so we’ll see how they fare next. They do have a mere 1-5 record thus far, with the lone win coming last game against Great Britain, who aren’t one of the premier teams in this tournament. We’ll see how things shake up. But one thing we do know for sure is Slovenia doesn’t have the talent win when Luka is having an off-night, or when he isn’t dominating offensively. In order to win, and to stand a chance against the more talented opponents, Luka has to be his usual MVP caliber self.

This game unfortunately did very little for Serbia or their chances for success in this tournament, dropping them to just 1-5 in exhibition play. It also laid a blueprint for other teams who will be playing Slovenia in the near future; they can simply load up on Luka and watch his teammates try to create offense, which they haven’t been able to do consistently at this point. The exhibition portion of the tournament is now over, and actual tournament games are set to kick off on August 28th. Slovenia will play Poland to kick-off EuroBasket 2025. For us Lakers fans, they key here is Luka, and how he’s looking and how he’s playing. So far he’s looked great. It’s been good to see his mobility and crispness back to peak levels, not to mentioned the bodyweight he’s shedded which has enabled this. Tonight he had a bad game, but he looked great and has looked great so far in these exhibition contests. That is certainly a good sign. Let’s hope he can sustain that level of play when the intensity and magnitude of these games increases. I think Luka will continue to get swarmed by opposing defenses, especially as games become more crucial. So it’ll be up to his teammates to respond by making defenses pay, thus giving themselves a chance. Hopefully Luka has a strong rebound game against Poland to get his confidence back, and his team’s. Until then let’s just hope the great play continues and the health sheet remains clean. Go Slovenia.