Luka Doncic, Slovenia Counting on 'Experience & Right Energy' vs. Talented Canada

Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic and the Slovenian national team might not have as much overall talent as Canada does, but they have an advantage when it comes to experience heading into Wednesday's FIBA World Cup quarterfinals matchup.

Dalton Trigg | Sep 5, 2023

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Heading into Wednesday morning's FIBA World Cup quarterfinals matchup against a Canada squad filled with NBA talent, Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic and Slovenia have their work cut out for them. Before the quarterfinals round officially began on Tuesday, with Team USA dismantling Italy and Serbia defeating Lithuania, Slovenia only had the sixth-best odds of winning the World Cup out of the remaining eight teams.

Although Canada has the edge when it comes to overall talent, Slovenia is counting on their recent Olympics and EuroBasket experience to help them find a way to win.

“[It will be] an emotion-evoking game, extremely important," Slovenian guard Jaka Blazic said. "But our generation has already won two important quarterfinals at the EuroBasket and the Olympics, so we have some positive experience, and that's how we're approaching tomorrow's game – with the right energy, the right mood.”

No matter how much of a talent advantage Canada might have, Slovenia will have a legitimate chance to pull off the upset simply by having a player of Doncic's status on the roster. Doncic is the best player in the World Cup, and when he's on the floor, there will always be a chance to win.

Many will try to make Wednesday's matchup about Doncic facing off against fellow All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and that will surely be a subplot to focus on, but both stars won't be paying attention to any of that, as they just want to help their teams advance to the World Cup semifinals.

"No, it's a Canada vs. Slovenia game," Gilgeous-Alexander said when asked about Wednesday's game turning into a 'Shai vs. Luka' duel. "I'm trying to do anything to win that game."

According to BetMGM, Slovenia is an 8.5-point underdog against Canada. Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for full coverage of the game and much more live from Manila in the coming days.

Published Sep 5, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.