Doncic 48 points ties Australian Ed Palubinskas (Montreal, 1976) for the second-most points ever scored in an Olympic basketball game.
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Slovenia’s Luka Doncic is the world’s best basketball player and he “destroyed” Argentina with his tactical skills, Argentina head coach Sergio Hernandez said after the match.
The Dallas Mavericks star came close to breaking the Olympics men’s single-game scoring record dropping 48 points as the Slovenians crushed Argentina 118-100 in their Olympics debut after leading by as much as 30 points.
Hernandez spoke highly about Doncic for more than two minutes at a post-game news conference, calling it an honour to be at the same game as the former NBA Rookie of the Year.
Luka Doncic goes off for 48 PTS, 11 REB, 5 AST in his Olympics debut as Slovenia defeats Argentina in their Preliminary Round opener! #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/k1OUoG4Vgo
— NBA (@NBA) July 26, 2021
“It’s really hard to analyse a game when one player just dominates everything as we saw tonight with Luka Doncic,” Hernandez said.
“He quickly figured out what our strategy was … and he just destroyed us. We’re talking about 15 points that he made in the first two-and-a-half, three minutes of the game.”
After scoring 17 points in the opening quarter, Doncic was up to 31 points and eight rebounds at the half. Leading Slovenia to a 62-42 lead over the world’s No.4 ranked team. He used his physicality to back down defenders and launch 3-pointers with ease and get to the rim at will. Doncic finished the game on 18 for 29 shooting, including six three-pointers, and stuffed the stat sheet with 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
While you were sleeping, Luka Doncic just did this in his Olympics debut:
48 PTS
11 REB
5 AST
3 BLK
6 3PT
18-29 FGin a 40-minute game. pic.twitter.com/q3AhHcU40f
— StatMuse (@statmuse) July 26, 2021
“He is the best player in the world, including the NBA. If there was any doubt in my mind, there isn’t anymore,” Hernandez said. “It’s an honour to be there at the game with him and despite that we wanted to win, he is a great player.”
His 48 points ties Australian Ed Palubinskas (Montreal, 1976) for the second-most points ever scored in an Olympic basketball game. Trailing only Brazilian Oscar Schmidt, who set the record against Spain in 1988 with 55 points. However, Doncic could have challenged the 55-point record set by Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt in 1988, but was fine with sitting out the last few minutes of the game with victory assured.
“It doesn’t matter. It was what, three, four minutes. We won the game at that time,” Doncic said. “I don’t care about records. We got a win, and that’s what we came here for.”
Slovenia head coach Aleksander Sekulic praised Doncic’s team-first mentality.
“I wasn’t trying to get him back in the game. To be honest I didn’t think about his points, even though he was amazing,” Sekulic said.
“This shows the character he has, that he came here to do something for Slovenia, not for himself, and he showed this to all the team and he is a great example for that.”
