The men’s basketball tournament is now under way, and besides the United States coming up flat against France, the second biggest story was the remarkable performance by Luka Doncic of Serbia in his opening game. Just how good was Doncic in Serbia’s 118-100 win over Argentina? The 22-year-old two-time NBA All-Star and 2019 rookie of the year was simply remarkable as he scored 48 points, which was the second most number of points by a player in an Olympic men’s basketball game.
Doncic also added 11 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks. He was also a magnificent +34 while on the court, made 18 of 29 field goal attempts, six of 14 three-point attempts, and six of seven free throws. The fact that Argentina had no answers for Doncic was absolutely mind-boggling when you consider he was without a doubt the most powerful Slovenian on the floor. The bottom line is the Argentinians needed to triple-team him, and maybe even quadruple team him.
The NBA record for most points in an Olympic game belongs to Oscar Schmidt of Brazil, who had 55 points at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul on September 24, 1988, according to Kyle Irving of nba.com. However, Brazil lost that particular game as they were beaten 118-110 by Spain. September 24, 1988 will best be remembered at the Olympic Games for the 100-metre run which featured Canada’s Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis of the United States. Johnson ran a time of 9.79, initially won Olympic gold, but then had his gold medal stripped for taking steroids.
Doncic and Slovenia will have an interesting game against Spain in Group C in Tokyo. That game will take place on August 1. Slovenia will also be playing Japan.
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