In the first half Slovenia did play well. Having a good shooting day and despite being inferior under the basket, Slovenia trailed by »only« seven points at half-time (42:49).

Slovenia's top scorer Goran Dragić opened the second half with a basket (44:49) and then everything stopped. The Americans started playing tougher defense and started filling Slovenia's basket through continuous fast breaks. And when the U.S. started hitting threes their advantage quickly grew to +20, which meant the end of Slovenia's dreams of a sensation. Despite their big lead the U.S. did not back down and 44 second before the end the score board said +45 (74:119). The Americans will now face Lithuania in the semi-finals on Thursday. In the first match yesterday Lithuania beat Turkey with 73:61.

A brave Slovenian start
Slovenia started the game with Goran and Zoran Dragić, Lorbek, Zupan and Slokar in the starting five. After failing to convert their first attack, Lorbek scored in the second to make it 2:1. Slovenia bravely confronted its opponent and Slokar was then successful to make it 4:4. A little later G. Dragić made a dunk to make it 6:4, and then Lorbek increased Slovenia's lead to 8:4. A 6:0 U.S. run followed, and then Slokar equaled the score at 10:10 in the fifth minute. The Americans dominated under the basket and thanks to their many rebounds in the 6th minute they took a 15:10 lead.
Coach Zdovc called his first time-out. After the time-out Z. Dragić lowered the score to 12:15. Unlike the Americans Slovenia's players shot well in the first period and thus managed to keep close distance at this stage. After Lorbek hit a three in the 7th minute, the score board said 15:19. After a few bad plays on Slovenia's behalf, the U.S. increased its lead to 26:15, but Slovenia came back to make it 20:26. At the end of the first quarter, Slovenia trailed by a bearable 22:29.

An equal second quarter
Slovenia continued playing strong in the second quarter. In the 12th minute Dragić cut the lead to 26:33. However two fast break dunks by Faried made it 37:26. Coach Zdovc called another time-out. After that the U.S. lead hovered around 10 points. Lorbek had a shooting night and hit twice in a row to make it 31:41. Slovenia kept pace with the Americans, and Zupan lowered the score from under the basket to make it 34:43 in the 17th minute. However, unfortunately the native of Kranjska Gora failed to hit the two free-throws that followed, so the U.S. lead stayed at +9. After sloppy end to end play from both sides in the second quarter, and after G. Dragić scored to make it 39:49, U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski also called for a time-out. It was followed by a three from Z. Dragić to cut the lead to -7 (42:49), which was also the score at half-time. The U.S led mostly thanks to their excellent rebounding, which they statistically won by 36:21. Lorbek and Faried both topped the scoring list with 12 points each.

The illusions of a sensation come to an end
The second half started with a line-up of the Dragić brothers, Balažić, Lorbek and Slokar. G. Dragić laid it in to make it 44:49. The beginning was promising, but poor minutes of play would follow and the U.S. would break away to make it 57:44. Slokar cut the lead again with a three. But as the game continued Slovenia failed to convert a couple of more plays and punishment came soon – after Kyrie Irving's three-pointer the score board said 66:49 in the 26th minute. The Slovenes started losing their strength. In the 28th minute, after a dunk by Faried and Curry's free-throws, the lead grew to +20 for the first time (74:54). A little later Thompson made a lay-up to make it 76:54. The illusions of Slovenia staging any kind of surprise came to an end. Klobučar and Prepelič cut the U.S lead to under 20 again with two threes. However, just before the end of the third quarter Harden hit a "wild" three-pointer, to make it 86:64.

(Unsuccessful) Efforts for a "dignified" loss
The final quarter started with a 5:0 U.S. run, forcing Zdovc to immediately call a time-out. After the one-minute break Cousins stole the basket from Zupan and Harden slam dunked it after a fast break to make it 93:64. As the lead went up to +32 (96:64) all that Slovenia hoped for at that stage was for the game to end as soon as possible. However, despite their big lead the U.S. kept on "biting" and also started entertaining the fans with some excellent play. When DeRozan slam dunked it with one hand to make it 111:72, Zdovc took another time-out. After that DeRozan scored again to make it +41 (113:72). But that was not to be the highest lead of the night. 44 second before the end Plumlee dunked it to make it 119:74.

A.V.; translated by K. J.