Luka Doncic made his Olympic debut on Monday, and to say he put on a show would be an understatement. The Dallas Mavericks star nearly set an Olympic scoring record while leading Slovenia to a 118-100 win over Argentina.
Doncic scored 48 points in 31 minutes. The point total is the second-most ever in an Olympic game, as he fell just short of the 55 points Brazilian Hall of Famer Oscar Schmidt scored in 1988. Doncic also had 11 rebounds and 5 assists.
The scoring output from Doncic was absolutely insane no matter how you look at it. He had 17 points in the first quarter alone. Keep in mind that quarters are only 10 minutes in the Olympics as opposed to 12 in an NBA game. The reactions on Twitter were as good as you’d expect.
Luka Doncic playing with Slovenia right now pic.twitter.com/ZVbUi2dIG0
— #RingerNBA (@ringernba) July 26, 2021
luka doncic with the slovenian national team pic.twitter.com/9cE2YfPpG9
— buckets (@buckets) July 26, 2021
every other Olympic basketball team watching Luka Doncic and Slovenia pic.twitter.com/K4toctUYi7
— House Mavericks (@HouseMavericks) July 26, 2021
So I guess @luka7doncic is not bad at playing ball…
— Nikola Vucevic (@NikolaVucevic) July 26, 2021
Slovenia has 62 points at the half…
…Luka Doncic has 31 of them.
SWEET. BABY. JEEBUS. pic.twitter.com/8r6aQmr5tS
— Jonah Javad (@JonahJavad) July 26, 2021
Luka Doncic has 17 points for Slovenia. It’s the first quarter. pic.twitter.com/kr6oiP9qUS
— At The Buzzer (@AtTheBuzzer1) July 26, 2021
How Slovenia fans are feelin with Luka Doncic on the team #Luka #Olympics pic.twitter.com/Ntd0GaCB5t
— SportzStew (@sportzstewcom) July 26, 2021
Doncic’s 48 points were more than Team USA’s entire starting lineup had combined in Sunday’s loss to France. As you might imagine, the Twitter reactions for the American team were a lot different (see them here) than the ones we saw with Doncic.
Doncic is now a perfect 14-0 in international competition with Slovenia. That is hardly a coincidence.
