With the crippled connected the line, Slovenia's Klemen Prepelic had cipher betwixt him and a layup that would person sent his state into the golden medal crippled astatine the Tokyo Olympics.
Nicolas Batum had lone 1 thought.
"I had to marque that play," Batum said.
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That's precisely what helium did — reaching implicit Prepelic to artifact the changeable with 2.4 seconds left, and with that France survived a historical effort from Luka Doncic to bushed Slovenia 90-89 connected Thursday nighttime successful the Olympic men's hoops semifinals.
After the extremity of the game, Doncic reportedly yelled "FIBA is astir apt happy" portion walking done the media mixed zone, and shouted "FIBA happened" portion a teammate was being interviewed.
Slovenia's biggest gripe came astatine 78-78 successful the last period, erstwhile Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot blocked Jaka Blazic's layup attempt.
Blazic protested that it was a goaltend, and helium received a method foul.
Doncic had the 3rd triple-double successful Olympic men's history: 16 points, 10 rebounds and 18 assists. But it wasn't rather enough, and Slovenia fell to 17-1 all-time erstwhile he's successful the nationalist squad colors.
"I don't deliberation we played large but we were there," Doncic said, sporting an crystal battalion connected his wrist postgame. "We had the past accidental and we didn't marque it."
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