Luka Doncic fouled an opponent to try to win the ball back, with Slovenia up 27 points in the final seconds. Goga Bitadze tried to make sure Georgia — his own team — didn’t win in regulation by trying to score on the opponent’s basket as time was running out. And the Philippines, which trailed by three points as the game ran out of time, had no interest in trying to win.
And here’s the thing: all of these pieces made a lot of sense.
The tiebreaker scenarios in Thursday’s Olympic qualifiers led to some highly unusual decisions, the likes of which would not be seen in most games.
“Yes, it was a little strange,” said Gregor Horvat from Slovenia. “But that’s basketball.”
Let’s explain:
Slovenia needed to win by 10 points to advance to the semi-finals and needed to win by 29 points to finish top of the group – meaning they would almost certainly avoid facing hosts Greece in the semi-finals on Saturday in Piraeus.
The first task was accomplished: Slovenia was ahead by 27, with around 17 seconds to go, so advancing was certain. But Luka Doncic wanted first place, so he fouled New Zealander Shea Ili – who sank one of two free throws, cutting the lead to 26.
Doncic had a good look at the corner 3 for what would have been the 29-point game-winner, but it ricocheted off the rim with about two seconds remaining and time expired.
He could only laugh. Slovenia won 104-78 and Doncic finished with 36 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists – an exceptional effort, but his teammates gave him some good-natured grief afterward.
“I mean, he missed the last shot,” Horvat said. “No, I’m joking. It’s unbelievable to have a player like that. He gives us extra confidence and is much easier to play with.”
All the Philippines had to do to advance was win by any margin or lose by 18 points or less.
As such, they seemed quite happy to settle for a defeat in the final moments.
The Philippines had the ball at the end of the half, trailing by three, and basically tried to run out the clock – making no effort to tie the game, as the ultimate goal of reaching the semi-finals of the tournament in Riga, Latvia, was in the cards. hands . Georgia needed to win by 19 to advance, and the only way that could happen was if they pulled off a miracle in overtime.
“We couldn’t go to overtime,” Philippines coach Tim Cone said. “We felt like we didn’t want to give them the opportunity to extend their lead in overtime.”
Georgia committed a foul with about three seconds remaining – something teams with late-game leads would never do intentionally under normal circumstances – sending Chris Newsome to the line for the Philippines. Newsome made the first free throw and missed the second.
“I should have made him hold the ball and not even shoot the second free throw and commit a violation,” Cone said. “That would have been the smart move. I deleted it, I didn’t think about it. We were lucky we didn’t have to go into extra time.”
Goga Bitadze grabbed the rebound and tried to score at the Philippine basket, with his shot successful.
Thus, Georgia won the game 96-94 – but saw its Olympic hopes end. And the Philippines lost – but celebrated their place in the semi-finals.
“This was mission impossible today,” Georgia coach Aleksander Dzikic said.
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This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
