There’s no letting up for Jonas Valanciunas and the Lithuanians despite just playing in the FIBA Basketball World Cup classification round.
Lithuania treated its game against the overmatched Slovenian side like it was still in the title race, torching its European rival, 100-84, to advance to the battle for fifth place Thursday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We’re playing for the fans. We’re playing for the people, who came here to support us. We’re not gonna give up those two games. Probably, don’t mean too much but we’re fighting for our people, our country,” Valanciunas, who had a double-double monster game, said.
The New Orleans Pelicans big man wreaked havoc on Slovenia’s defense with 24 points and 12 rebounds but it was the Lithuanians’ stifling defense on Slovenian star Luka Doncic that spelled the difference.
Doncic struggled in the second half as he went 1-of-10 from the field after a hot touch in the first two quarters. He broke his shooting slump with a triple that meant little as the game was already out of hand, 98-82, with 34 seconds left.
Doncic, who plays for the Dallas Mavericks, had 29 points off a 7-of-21 field goal shooting in Slovenia’s third straight loss after piling up four victories in a row.
Ignas Brazdeikis finished with 15 points while Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Deividas Sirvydis contributed with 14 markers each.
Lithuania built its biggest lead, 92-69, off a slamdunk by Valanciunas with 4:15 left in the game.
“Everybody played hard. Everybody contributed. Everybody gave everything on the court. As I said earlier, we’re not gonna give up. It’s gonna be OK take everything from us. We’re still gonna play our basketball, our identity. One more game left,” Valanciunas said.
Lithuania will face World Cup first-timer Latvia in the battle for fifth on Saturday.
Latvia beat Italy, 87-82, in their classification meeting earlier.
Slovenia and Italy clash for seventh place also Saturday.
