Sekulic on Doncic sitting out: 'We didn't want to overload some players' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: IMAGO/Seskim Photo - Scanpix; FIBA Credit IMAGO/Seskim Photo - Scanpix; FIBA

A game that was supposed to take place in a preparatory and friendly nature between Turkey and Slovenia went wild and gave good omens for what is about to come in EuroBasket 2022.

Goran Dragic

Position:PG, SGAge:36Height:191 cmWeight:86 kgBirth place:Ljubljana, SloveniaProfileNewsStatistics

In the dying seconds of the game, Furkan Korkmaz sent the game to overtime with a weird-looking buzzer-beater shot after Onuralp Bitim’s shot was blocked by Vlatko Cancar to make the packed Sinan Erdem Dome crowd go wild.

The last word came from the comeback hero Goran Dragic in overtime though, who hit a step-back three-pointer to steal the game for Slovenia.

Besides the rollercoaster action, there were some surprisingly tense moments between the players like Goran Dragic-Cedi Osman as well as Luka Doncic-Onuralp Bitim. Even the Slovenian coach Aleksander Sekulic could not hide his big impression of the game.

"To be honest, we did not expect the game to have that kind of intensity," he admitted.

"It was also a game for prestige. We know how big Turkish basketball and NT are with a great coach and many good players," he continued. "They wanted to put a big effort in a full arena and at the same time, we showed the character that is needed to play against this Turkish team and showed that we can also play on this hard level."

It was Luka Doncic's first match during the preparation cycle for the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers and EuroBasket 2022 for the Slovenian national team. Luka spent 27:18 minutes on the court to produce 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists.

However, the Mavericks superstar came to the bench in the last 6:09, and never went back into the game, even in crunch time. During the process, Slovenia could not stop Turkey from pulling itself back into the game, despite the hosts falling 11 points behind.

"We tried to plan some minutes for the roster because we did not want some players to overload," Sekulic said.

"We are just at the beginning of the preparation process. I think the most important thing is to keep players healthy and at the same time, increase the condition level. Our level in terms of that is not that high, currently."

Sekulic also admitted that Slovenia had a hard time during those last sequences, but he was happy at the end because of his team’s late reaction.

"Even though we had some bad momentums and missed some open shots, we kept our heads calm," the coach explained. "At the end of the day, it gave us a lot of boosts. The players stepped up in the correct way. The key part was that we did not panic."

Slovenia's next game is going to be against Ukraine, on Saturday evening, at Sinan Erdem Dome.The biggest test during the preparation cycle will be against Serbia on August 17 in the capital of Ljubljana.

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