Slovenia is in danger of losing its twin aces at the same time.
Slovenia fell to Greece 77-88 in the second game of the FIBA 2023 Basketball World Cup Philippines-Japan-Indonesia exhibition against Greece in Athens, Greece on Friday (June 5).
This is the same Slovenia that fell 91-98 in the first exhibition game on April 4 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where they were outplayed by a Greece team that had Luka “Hallelujah” Doncic but was without the “Monster” Yannis Adetokunbo.
The problem wasn’t the loss. On this day, Slovenia lost Doncic to a sore right knee. She felt the pain while chasing down a Greek screen in a defensive situation with two minutes left in the second quarter.
“According to ESPN’s Tim McMahon, Doncic’s injury is minor and shouldn’t affect his participation in the World Cup.
Doncic had 18 points, including three 3-pointers, before the injury.
In addition to Doncic, however, Slovenia also lost Blatko Chančar to a left knee injury. He complained of pain on landing after a spectacular dunk in the fourth quarter.
Moving to the team bus after the game, Chanchar moved around on his own and didn’t seem to have a major problem. However, he was seen limping and his participation in the upcoming Basketball World Cup is still unclear.
Slovenia is not a one-man team with Doncic, and the difference between them and without him is obviously huge. However, along with Doncic and Clemen Prefelic, Chanchar is Slovenia’s main scorer. Without him, Slovenia will have to contemplate a void that cannot be filled.
Meanwhile, the game between Lithuania and Finland on the same day was decided by a fourth-quarter buzzer-beater in favor of Finland, 81-79. Finland’s Nokia Arena was packed with 13,354 fans, a record for the country.먹튀검증
The Finns were led by Lauri Makanen and held off Lithuania, which was led by Jonas Valtunas. Makanen finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, outrebounding Valentunas, who was held to 10 points.
Notably, Makanen missed the game-winning shot with 6.4 seconds left in regulation. However, Mikael Jantunen scored immediately after the offensive rebound and hit the game-winning shot to seal the win for Finland.
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