Greece is one win away from making the 2024 Paris Olympics, while Slovenia’s run has ended
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Giannis Antetokounmpo is one win away from clinching his first Olympic appearance. On Saturday, at home in Piraeus, Antetokounmpo and Greece eliminated Luka Doncic and Slovenia in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament semifinals.
Antetokounmpo only needed to play 21 minutes in the 96-68 victory, finishing with 13 points on 6-for-12 shooting. Thomas Walkup had a team-high 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting, and Vasileios Toliopoulos added 17 points on 6-of-6 shooting, including 4-for-4 from deep.
Doncic scored 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting in the loss, with seven rebounds, five assists and 10 turnovers in 34 minutes. He shot 5-for-9 from deep, but just 2-for-6 from the free-throw line. Slovenia collectively struggled to deal with the double-teams that Greece sent at Doncic; big man Josh Nebo had 17 points on 8-for-9 shooting, but the rest of Doncic’s teammates scored a combined 30 points on 8-for-31 shooting.
Greece started the game on a 13-0 run and led by as many as 31 points. It was a wire-to-wire win; they dominated the offensive glass and in transition.
Kostas Antetokounmpo, Giannis’ younger brother, missed the game after hurting his knee in Greece’s victory against Egypt on Thursday.
In the finals on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, Greece will face Croatia (featuring Ivica Zubac and Dario Saric), who defeated the Dominican Republic 80-77 in Saturday’s other semifinals matchup in Piraeus. One of four open spots in the Paris Olympics will be on the line.
The other three spots will go to the winners of the other three OQTs. The matchups for Sunday’s finals are as follows:
- In Riga, Latvia, the home country will play Brazil at 12 p.m. ET.
- In Valencia, Spain, the home country will play the Bahamas at 2:30 p.m. ET.
- In San Juan, Puerto Rico, the winners of Saturday’s semifinals — Italy vs. Lithuania, Puerto Rico vs. Mexico — will meet at 6 p.m. ET.
