Slovenia beat Italy 84-77 in a nail-biting game to proceed to the quarter finals of EuroBasket. Lakers superstar Luka Doncic led all scorers with 42 points, 10 rebounds, and one assist to lead Slovenia to the next round of the competition. He scored half the points of the entire team.
While Luka Doncic hit the ground running from the tip-off whistle, scoring 22 points in the first quarter itself, Italy fought back. Following a 9-0 run from Italy in the second quarter to cut Slovenia’s lead to seven points, Slovenia called a timeout when Doncic decided that his team needed his words of motivation to avoid bottling a lead.
“Please pull yourselves together, it’s a 7 pt game. Stop bickering for every small thing, it’s us against them, not us against each other!” said Doncic. Basketball fans witnessed this vocal leadership from Doncic and expressed their feelings clearly on social media.
“Born leader.”
“I’ll go to war if Luka were my general.”
“Strong leader Luka Doncic.”
“Love my Coach Luka.”
“Can’t wait for the NBA to start! #77”
“This would be your TED talk.”
Coach Luka saying something like “Please pull yourselves together, it’s a 7 pt game. Stop bickering for every small thing, it’s us against them, not us against each other!”
(I didn’t translate the expletives 😅) pic.twitter.com/IUpVnzT8xj
— SLO HOOPS FAN 🇸🇮 (@SloHoopsFan) September 7, 2025
Various such reactions flooded the internet as Doncic and Slovenia fought to stay in the lead. This was not the first time Doncic needed to motivate his teammates mid-game at EuroBasket. Slovenia managed to hold onto its lead as it went into the half with a ten-point lead (50-40). They are set to face Germany in the quarterfinals of EuroBasket.
Doncic has been on a dominant stretch at EuroBasket, leading the competition in three categories since early in the competition itself. He is currently scoring 36.89% of his team’s points at the Eurobasket, which is more than what Michael Jordan ever managed with the Bulls.
Only Wilt Chamberlain has averaged a higher scoring percentage for his team in just two seasons. Doncic is also leading Slovenia in blocks, steals, rebounds, and assists.
Additionally, he is leading the tournament in free throw attempts per game, averaging 12.3 makes in 13.8 attempts per game. Some might argue he is getting the NBA ‘superstar whistle’ at Eurobasket, but the treatment he gets from defences also justifies it on some level.
After scoring 30 of his 42 points in the first half, Doncic took a back seat in the second half. As Slovenia took a comfortable lead, Doncic proceeded to poke fun at the opposition in the second half by doing a stereotypical Italian sign with his hands and making faces at their bench.
Luka to the italians 🤣🤣😭 pic.twitter.com/59nqrsX6dm
— Luka Updates (@LukaUpdates) September 7, 2025
If Doncic continues this historic run, he may be on course to have one of the best seasons at EuroBasket in history. It will be interesting to see how his experience at EuroBasket translates into the upcoming NBA season. We will definitely see Doncic putting in a lot more effort on defence, even if he claims that his body transformation has not affected his game in any way.
