The Lakeshow Review

Following a rocky start to EuroBasket 2025, Slovenia has rebounded strongly to bring their record to an even 2-2 in the group stages of the tournament. Today they defeated Iceland by a score of 87-79. The final score might tell a slightly different story, as this game was very closely contested for the vast majority of its duration. The resilient Iceland team brought forth a never-say-die attitude that challenged the Slovenians to dig deep. But ultimately, it was Luka and Slovenia who prevailed and as a result, will advance to the round of 16.

Luka had a good showing once again. The Lakers Star tallied game-high 26 points, to go with seven rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block. He did have a tough night shooting though, making only 8 of his 22 attempts, and once again shooting a less-than-stellar 2-10 from distance. It’s perhaps too early to worry about the shooting numbers, but Luka has struggled uncharacteristically so far from range, bringing his overall three point shooting for the tournament to a smidge under 28% after today’s match. It could be attributed to poor shot quality, or it could be that he’s simply going through a slump, or it could be some mixture of different factors. But it should be noted that it has been by far the only downside to his play thus far, as everything else, from the scoring, to the playmaking, to the rebounding, and yes, even the defense, has been on-point so far. The important part is that Slovenia picked up the win, and will now set their sights on the round of 16. Luka also gets a few more cracks to break out with a big game from three-point range. The competition certainly gets stiffer from here, so Slovenia will need every bit of brilliance from Luka as they look to go deep in this tournament.

It should be noted that this wasn’t an easy game for Sovenia. Coming off of the heels of a victory over Belgium, they needed every bit of this win in order to maintain their tournament hopes alive after starting just 0-2. It was a see-saw battle through two quarters, as Slovenia managed to take a 36-35 lead into the break. They opened the second half much more aggressively, eventually opening up a 60-46 lead on Iceland. But Iceland’s resilience was not to be denied, as they fought back to make it a 5 point game with over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. A late three pointer helped the Slovenian side push their lead back to nine, affirmatively sealing the game. But credit to Iceland for hanging tough and refusing to go away easy.

Despite the subpar shooting numbers, Luka looked very comfortable running the offense. He had some nice possessions on the pick and roll, as Slovenia has definitely gotten more creative on that end, at times running empty-side ball screens on the wing. Luka also made a couple of step-back threes, which showcased his dangerous scoring ability. I would still contend that one of the main reasons Luka is struggling from deep is because he is shooting most of those shots off-the-dribble, not to mention, Slovenia lacks the talent to deter teams from constantly doubling Luka when he has the ball. But when his step-back is going in, he certainly looks imposing. Another factor contributing to his poor shooting during the last two games is simply the fact that he’s logging alot of minutes. Because he is virtually the team’s offense, he has to play close to the entire game for Slovenia to have a chance to be competitive. It’s telling that even against lesser opponents like Belgium and Iceland, Luka still has to stay on the court for them to be competitive. They’re still not getting great production from other teammates, as guard Aleksej Nikolic (17 points) was the only other Slovenian to clock in double-digits scoring. No one else had more than seven points. It’ll be interesting to see if and how Slovenia can delegate responsibilities moving forward, as they desperately need more production from their other players, especially seeing as how they’ll be facing deeper and more talented teams in the round of 16. Today was easily Luka’s worst game of the tournament so far, scoring 26 points on 22 shots, and struggling with foul trouble for much of the first half. But even so, he still managed to robustly fill the box score, and more importantly secure a much needed win. I think they’ll need much more from Luka in order to beat the likes of Germany, France, Croatia and Greece. But then again, they’ll need much more from the entire team. Slovenia will have another match with Israel, on Thursday, before they embark to the round of 16. From a Lakers fan standpoint, Luka continues to impress both with his play and with his leadership. Even in a tough battle like today, they managed to come together to produce a badly-needed win. Now let’s see if they can collectively find that extra gear in order to go toe-to-toe with the elite European teams. Until then, let’s hope Luka continues to ball, and bring glory to his team and country. Go Lakers and Go Slovenia.