Luka Dončić is not any stranger to triple-doubles. Simply seven seasons into his NBA profession, he is already seventh on the league’s all-time listing with 82. Till Sunday, nevertheless, he had by no means recorded one at EuroBasket with Slovenia. The truth is, few gamers ever have on the historic European competitors.
With 26 factors, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in Slovenia’s 86-69 win over Belgium on Sunday, Dončić formally grew to become the fourth participant in EuroBasket historical past to file a triple-double. That does not rely Croatia’s Stojko Vranković, who had a triple-double with blocks in 1993 previous to it changing into a recorded statistic.
Regardless, Dončić has joined an elite membership that features former Chicago Bulls star Toni Kukoč, who received three titles alongside Michael Jordan.
Triple-doubles at EuroBasket
*Unofficial
|
Luka Dončić |
Slovenia |
2025 |
|
Mateusz Ponitka |
Poland |
2022 |
|
Rareș Mandache |
Romania |
2017 |
|
Toni Kukoč |
Croatia |
1995 |
|
Stojko Vranković* |
Croatia |
1993 |
Whereas Dončić put up a triple-double, he was not at his greatest Sunday. He shot simply 9 of 23 from the sphere, and was notably off the mark from 3-point vary, the place he went 2 of 11. Nonetheless, he scored a game-high 26 factors and arrange his teammates left and proper. All advised, he both scored or assisted on 51 of Slovenia’s 86 factors in simply half-hour of motion.
By three video games, Dončić is now averaging 33 factors, 7.3 rebounds and 9.7 assists. He is main the event in each scoring and assists, and is thirteenth in rebounding. If there have been any issues about his well being after an damage scare throughout a warm-up sport in opposition to Latvia earlier this month, he has swiftly erased them.
Along with his triple-double achievement, Dončić grew to become the youngest participant (26 years and 184 days previous) to achieve 400 EuroBasket factors since Tony Parker in 2007 (25 years, 122 days). Moreover, he grew to become the quickest participant in twenty first century EuroBasket historical past (19 video games) to achieve 400 factors, 100 rebounds and 100 assists.
After a irritating begin to their EuroBasket marketing campaign, which included defeats to Poland and France, Slovenia’s win over Belgium moved them as much as third place in Group D in the interim. The highest 4 groups in every group (there are six groups per group) advance to the knockout spherical. Slovenia will conclude group stage play with video games in opposition to Iceland on Tuesday and Israel on Thursday.
