VICTORY SMILE: Antetokounmpo beams as ‘DESTROY’ Doncic to help Greece to advance to Olympic qualifying final

Thomas Walkup had 19 points, Giannis Antetokounmpo added 13 points in 21 minutes and Greece moved one victory from the Paris Games, eliminating Luka Doncic and Slovenia 96-68 on Saturday from the semifinals of the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Doncic finished with 21 points in the game in Piraeus, Greece, which marked first time the two NBA megastars faced one another while representing their senior national teams.

The matchup was one of eight semifinals taking place to determine the last four berths in the men’s basketball field for the Paris Games.

Vasileios Toliopoulos added 14 points for Greece, which will meet the winner of the Dominican Republic and Croatia on Sunday in the final of the Greece tournament, with the Paris Olympics berth going to the winner.

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Other semifinal games are taking place Saturday at tournaments in Spain, Latvia and Puerto Rico.

Doncic, who played through injuries in the NBA Finals for the Dallas Mavericks in their five-game loss to the Boston Celtics, averaged 31 points in Slovenia’s first two qualifying games. But he came out flat on Saturday against Greece’s big front line.

At the end of the first quarter, Greece led 32–14 and had scored 13 points in a row, setting Slovenia up for early pressure.

In the second quarter, Greece’s lead reached 23 points, but Slovenia used a late rally to narrow it to 47-33 at the break.

Greece started the third quarter quickly once more, going on an 11-3 run to gain some ground and maintaining a 16-point advantage into the fourth.

Slovenia shot just 43% (23 of 54) from the field for the game. That compared to 54% (34 of 70) for Greece, which also held a 38-25 rebounding edge.