Luka Dončić, Giannis Antetokounmpo to face off in win-or-go-home game for Olympic qualification

Luka Dončić has always taken pride in playing for his home nation.

Many Mavericks fans have become Slovenian fans in the process as Dončić is playing for Slovenia for the third time in the last four off-seasons. Basketball fans were inspired when he led Slovenia to the Olympics semifinals in 2021 after winning an Olympic Qualifying Tournament — hereafter referred to as an OQT — and leading the Slovenian side to a quarterfinal victory against a talented German side.

Following a one-point loss to France, Slovenia fizzled out and lost the bronze medal game to Australia days later. Still, Slovenia showed the world they were a force to be reckoned with on the world stage and fans hoped they would return in 2024 with a vengeance. Now, the team faces a tall task in Greece as it looks to qualify for the Olympic tournament later this month.

Slovenia struggled in its opening match of the OQT, dropping a match to Croatia 108-92. The loss meant the team would need to win its following match against New Zealand by at least 11 points to advance. Dončić led his team to a 104-78 victory and scored 36 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and dished out 10 assists in the win.

The win advanced Slovenia past the group stage of the OQT and left them as one of four teams remaining in the Piraeus OQT. Slovenia and Greece will face off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday while the Dominican Republic and Croatia will square off at 1 p.m. Saturday. The winners will play at 1 p.m. Sunday with the winner of that game advancing to the Olympics. Only one team will qualify from the group.

This sets up an elimination game between two of the game’s best players. Giannis Antetokounmpo played efficiently in his lone game for Greece this tournament, scoring 32 points on 11-11 shooting in just over 18 minutes. That performance gave the host nation the cushion it needed to rest the two-time NBA MVP in Thursday’s match against Egypt, which Greece won soundly without Antetokounmpo.

It will be a treat for basketball fans around the globe. Two of the game’s top players going back and forth, giving it their all with a trip to the Olympics on the line. Fans can watch the match on the Courtside1891 app or website. To watch the games, fans will need to purchase a Courtside1891 subscription. Fans may either purchase an annual pass at $29.99 or an OQT-only pass — which will show Slovenia’s game against Greece and the Final should they win Saturday — for $17.99.

While Dončić has played at the Olympics and produced classic performances like his 48-point masterclass against Argentina in his debut Olympics game, Antetokounmpo has never played at the Summer Olympics. Greece as a nation hasn’t qualified for the Olympic tournament since the 2008 Beijing games where it lost a two-point contest to defending world champion Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Now Antetokounmpo and Greece are two wins away from returning to the game’s most storied tournament, but a hungry Slovenian team stand in its way. Dončić is eager to win a medal for his country, so much so that he once claimed winning a gold medal was more important to him than winning an NBA championship, and there’s no doubt Slovenian players have a sour taste in their mouth from how the 2021 Olympics run ended.

While Dončić and Antetokounmpo play with their nations watching, basketball fans will reap the benefits. The superstars may never meet in the playoffs — Dallas is in the West, Milwaukee is in the East — and the NBA regular season has lost some of the intensity it once had, so this may be the highest stakes we ever see these two face off in.