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Recapping Day One Of Olympic Basketball Qualifiers

© Kareem Elgazzar-USA TODAY Sports

The qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Olympics in Paris kicked off on Tuesday at four different sites. The tournaments will run from Tuesday through Sunday in Greece, Latvia, Spain, and Puerto Rico. Across the four OQT’s, 24 countries will battle it out for just four spots in the Olympics. The other eight spots have already been clinched due to the results of last summer’s FIBA World Cup.

Recapping Day One Of Olympic Basketball Qualifiers

Piraeus, Greece

The Dominican Republic had a solid showing at the World Cup last summer, and now they want to follow that up with an upset in the Greece OQT. Beating Egypt 90-77 on day one is a good start. They were led by Jean Montero, who had an impressive stat line of 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Chris Duarte had 14 points and 6 rebounds, and longtime team veteran Víctor Liz had 12 points of his own. Egypt’s Ahmed Metwaly led all scorers with 24 points, and Khaled Abdelgawad had 15. Despite playing for the country for the first time in a decade last summer, Karl-Anthony Towns is not playing for the Dominicans.

The game from day one that most people will be focused on is the result of Slovenia vs. Croatia. The Slovenes are of course led by superstar Luka Dončić. Unfortunately, he and the team got off to a really rough start. They got down by 15 points in the first quarter and shot an abysmal 2/17 from three in the first half. That poor start from them is what gave Croatia the edge, and they went on to get the upset win 108-92 (and it was only that close after a nine-point fourth-quarter differential). The Croats did not qualify for the World Cup last year but are clearly very hungry to make up for that by making it to the Olympics this year.

Each team had a player with a triple-double: Luka Dončić for Slovenia and Dario Šarić for Croatia. Triple-doubles are already really uncommon in international play, and for there to be two in the same game is crazy. Luka had 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Šarić had 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.

They weren’t the only high-level performers though. On the winning side, Clippers center Ivica Zubac had 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Goran Filipović actually led the team in scoring with 21 points, and he also had 4 rebounds and 6 assists. As a team, Croatia shot a nice 59.2% from the field. On the losing side, Klemen Prepelič scored 19 points for Slovenia. Josh Nebo added 12 points and 9 rebounds.

The Greek hosts as well as New Zealand will start their run to the games on Wednesday.

Riga, Latvia

Brazil vs. Montenegro was a very intriguing matchup and the game did not disappoint. In the end, Brazil was able to pull out the victory thanks to a dominating performance from 2014 NBA first-round pick Bruno Caboclo. The big man had 25 points on 12-16 shooting and was one rebound shy of a double-double. Brazil outscored Montenegro by 17 points when Caboclo was on the court. Marcelinho Huertas had 17 points of his own and grabbed 8 rebounds.

Montenegro was of course led by their star big man Nikola Vučević. The center (who doesn’t get enough recognition) had a 17-point 13-rebound double-double. Fellow big man Marko Simonović also played well, scoring 15 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.

In one of the multiple blowouts of the day, the host Latvia crushed Georgia 83-55. Latvia had an awesome performance in last year’s World Cup, which vaulted them from 29th all the way up to 6th in the FIBA world rankings. Artūrs Strautiņš had an awesome scoring day, dropping 18 points and not missing a single shot of any kind. As a team, Latvia made 12 threes, three of which came from the “Latvian Laser” Dāvis Bertāns.

Georgia’s two NBA players, Alexander “Sandro” Mamukelashvili and Goga Bitadze, were the lone bright spots for the team. Sandro had 14 points and 4 rebounds and Bitadze (who just signed a new deal with the Magic) had 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks, and both shot high percentages.

Cameroon and the Philippines are also in Riga.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

In another one of the beatdowns that occurred on Tuesday, Italy more than doubled up Bahrain, winning 114-53. The Italians didn’t slow down as the game progressed either, as they scored 38 points in the fourth quarter. Danilo Gallinari was unable to play in the World Cup because he was still rehabbing from his torn ACL, but he’s back for The Blues (Gli Azzurri) now and scored 14 points in this game. He was one of seven players for Italy that scored in double-figures. Former NBA player Nicolò Melli also had 14 points and added 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Achille Polonara had 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Marco Spissu and former Arizona Wildcats star Nico Mannion also played well. Ahmed Haji led Bahrain in scoring with 12 points.

The second game of the day in San Juan was more competitive. Lithuania would beat Mexico 96-84 on Tuesday night. The Lithuanians seemed to have pulled away in the second half after outscoring Mexico 34-17 in the third quarter., Mexico had a 10-point edge in the fourth to try to come back. Marius Grigonis led all scorers with 21 points on 8-13 shooting. Sacramento Kings star Domantas Sabonis had a 12-point 11-rebound double-double.

Joshua Ibarra led the way for Mexico with 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. Gabriel Girón had 15 and 6. Paul Stoll had 9 points and an impressive 12 assists.

Ivory Coast and host Puerto Rico will debut on Wednesday.

Valencia, Spain

Spain had an incredibly disappointing performance at the World Cup last year, finishing in 9th place. That would ultimately cost them their number-one world ranking. However, they seem to have shaken that off. In front of their home fans on Tuesday they obliterated Lebanon, winning the game by 45. The big men dominated for La Roja in the 104-59 win. Grizzlies forward Santiago “Santi” Aldama led the way with 17 points and 9 rebounds, and Warriors forward Usman Garuba had 15 and 8 off the bench. Jaime Pradilla added 14 points of his own off the bench. Lebanon’s Youssef Khayat led all scorers with 20 points in addition to grabbing 8 rebounds. Every player on the team scored 2 or more points.

At first glance, there was a huge upset in Valencia. The Bahamas, ranked 57th in the world, beat 20th-ranked Finland 96-85 in Valencia. But there needs to be some context. First, while they’re still a good squad without him, Finland is missing their superstar Lauri Markkanen, who is out with a shoulder injury. Second, this Bahamas team has three easily recognizable NBA players in addition to a top high school recruit. The latter is a kid by the name of Valdez Edgecombe Jr. The 18-year-old is a consensus 5-star top 5 recruit who will be playing at Baylor this upcoming season. But first, he wants to get his home country to the Olympics. He had 20 points off the bench against Finland.

The three big NBA names on the team that you’ll recognize are Deandre Ayton, Buddy Hield, and Eric Gordon. Ayton had 19 points and 9 rebounds, Hield had 24 (which led all scorers) and 6, and Gordon had 16, 3, and 4 assists.

Mikael Jantunen and Edon Maxhuni each scored 20 points for the Fins. Jantunen also had 8 rebounds and 4 assists and Maxhuni had 6 assists.

Poland and Angola are also in this tournament.

Notable Absence

Argentina is very notably missing. They failed to qualify for last summer’s World Cup, the first time that had happened in 41 years. Then last August they lost to the Bahamas in the pre-qualifying final, which is why they are absent this week. This will be the first time in more than two decades that the current 8th-ranked team in the world has failed to make it to the Olympics. Argentina is the last country other than the United States to win the gold medal at the Olympics, although that was back in the 2004 games in Athens.

Already Qualified

As I mentioned before eight of the Olympic spots have already been clinched. France is in automatically as the host country. Germany won last summer’s World Cup which got them in. The other six are Canada, Australia, Serbia, Japan, South Sudan, and the United States. They all got in due to their finishes in the World Cup relative to their respective continents. The two highest finishes countries from the Americas, Europe, and Asia/Oceania, as well as the highest finisher from Africa automatically qualify for the Olympics.

Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor

Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor

Extremely passionate sports fan. MBA student at Campbell University. BS in Sport Management from Campbell. AA from JCC. He specializes in college basketball. But he occasionally also writes about the Miami Heat, the WNBA, & international competitions. He is also a former FanSided contributor.

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