Luka Doncic will undoubtedly need to outdo himself to keep Slovenia afloat at Eurobasket 2025. Since 36 points and 9 assists weren't enough for a win over Poland, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar will have to do a lot more to fill the remaining quality gap in the current roster.
The hosts of Group D in Katowice took advantage of this advantage, showed pluralism in the attack and, redeeming the passport they gave to Jordan Lloyd in the first point, they reached the valuable 105-95 with relative ease. The American guard was unstoppable with 32 points from 7/8 three-pointers, but the experienced Mateusz Ponitka with 23 points and 7 rebounds was equally useful.
Blue tornado in Katowice
On the contrary, France's matchup with Belgium for the same group had clear roles from the beginning. The Blues seemed to be the absolute favorite and confirmed it without much effort (92-64).
The Lions were competitive in the first half of the match, but not to the extent that they would threaten a team with heights, solutions, youth and enthusiasm for a convincing start. Despite the poor percentage in the three-point field goal, the Foto team escaped early with a double-digit lead and managed, with a solid performance on both sides of the floor, to get what it wanted in the tournament premiere.
Cyprus fell in battle
On the other hand, for Cyprus to be competitive in a final phase match of such an organization was almost utopian no matter how many steps forward they have taken. The action proved it, as before the end of the first half of the match they were at -20 (41-21). Clearly superior, Bosnia relied on the dominance of Nurkic to build a secure lead from the start and start their victorious journey in the group, prevailing 91-64.
A mess for Spain, Mamukelashvili is a bull
Overall, Eurobasket is proving to be as unpredictable as Georgia's 83-69 sweep of Spain in the opening game of Group C. The renewed firepower failed miserably in its first test of the tournament, and the result in Limassol has thrown things into a tailspin for the National Team.
With Mamukelashvili like that (19pts, 7rp, 6as) Dzikic's team is now threatening everyone, even aiming for first place. Especially when Bitadze and Shengelia coexist next to him. On the contrary, Scariolo expects his players to wake up from hibernation, because even the double-digit Aldama was not influential (5/15 shots), given that while he was on the court, Spain lost by 24 points. Juancho Hernangomez (13pts, 8rp) took the lead very late in order to reverse the situation, his brother Billy never did.
In Katowice, the group, finally, from Avdiya, the Icelanders were expecting it from Sorkin, they stepped on her in the end. Not that the Israeli NBAer was bad (20p, 9r) in the match. Nevertheless, the experienced Maccabi tall had a career night with the national team thanks to 31 points from 9/12 two-pointers and 4/7 three-pointers. Logical, then, the final 83-71 that put Israel on track to qualify from the premiere.
The results in Group C of the Eurobasket
- Georgia – Spain 83-69
- Bosnia – Cyprus 91-64
- Greece – Italy Novasports 75-66
The rating
- Bosnia 1-0 (+27)
- Georgia 1-0 (+14)
- Greece 1-0 (+9)
- Italy 0-1 (-9)
- Spain 0-1 (-14)
- Cyprus 0-1 (-27)
The results in Group D of the Eurobasket
- Israel – Iceland 83-71
- Belgium – France 64-92
- Slovenia – Poland 95-105
The rating
- France 1-0 (+28)
- Israel 1-0 (+12)
- Poland 10-0 (+10)
- Slovenia 0-1 (-10)
- Iceland 0-1 (-12)
- Belgium 0-1 (-28)
The program of the 3rd day
Group A
- 14:45 Turkey – Czech Republic (Novasports Start)
- 18:00 Estonia – Latvia (Novasports Start)
- 21:15 Portugal – Serbia (Novasports Start)
The rating
- Serbia 1-0 (+34)
- Turkey 1-0 (+20)
- Portugal 1-0 (+12)
- Czech Republic 0-1 (-12)
- Latvia 0-1 (-20)
- Estonia 0-1 (-34)
Group B
- 13:30 Germany – Sweden (Novasports 4HD)
- 16:30 Lithuania – Montenegro (Novasports 4HD)
- 20:30 Finland – Great Britain (Novasports 4HD)
The rating
- Germany 1-0 (+30)
- Lithuania 1-0 (+24)
- Finland 1-0 (+3)
- Sweden 0-1 (-3)
- Great Britain 0-1 (-24)
- Montenegro 0-1 (-30)
