Mandzaris: “If Doncic scores 60 for us, let’s lose to him – The point is that the others don’t score”

THE National team of Greece comes face to face in SEF with Slovenia of Luka Doncic (07/06, 17:30, ERT1, NovaSports Start, sport-fm.gr, News Bulletin 247), for a place in the final of Pre-Olympic tournament!

In view of this confrontation, Mr Vangelis Mantzariswho was an important member of the “blue and white” for several years, spoke about the need to limit the National the teammates of “Luka Magic” and not himself, commenting that he will hardly beat us by himself.

At the same time, he referred to the general image of the “official sweetheart” and the elements added by his old teammate, Vassilis Spanoulis.

What he said in detail:

“We’ve seen quite a few results that have surprised us. In general, the Pre-Olympics have many surprises. They are teams from all over the world, with a different basketball philosophy and many times they can confuse you and catch you off guard.”.

For the very good shot of the national team: “We have found a rhythm, we play in SEF, we have our crowd, which always gives the team a boost. We are very good at shooting, because in difficult games a lot will be decided by the three-pointer, they will give the shot to Walkup and Kalathis. It is very important in difficult matches to make the shots. It’s a proven fact that if you shoot you win, if you don’t you lose, especially in modern basketball. With Giannis, all the teams will give a lot of help, they will risk the three points a lot. I hope we can have a good day and get it because, for better or for worse, knockout games are very different from group games.”

For tomorrow’s (06/07) semi-final with Slovenia: “The national team is going at a fast pace, so Giannis can quickly find a rhythm. Doncic will go to set play, 5 vs. 5, so slower basketball. They also don’t have good returns. If we play good basketball and run we have the lead. To tell the truth, I’m not so afraid of Slovenia, I’m more afraid of Croatia.”

To deal with Luka Doncic: “Without knowing anything, I think Vassilis will put a tall guard on him and play in the changes. I would put him in the changes with Papagiannis or Antetokounmpo and let him score 60, as long as the others don’t score. If he puts us 60, let’s lose to him. This is relative, of course, because you can’t limit him. He will score 30 for sure, the point is not to get 10-15 assists to make up the rest. I believe this is the only way to limit him to European basketball.”

For Croatia: “And Croatia is a very dangerous team. For me, if he had a really good guard he would be the most complete team. He has bodies, he runs, he has talent, he has Zubac who is a force under the basket, he will be hard to contain. As far as I have seen them, they are a very good team. They are Yugoslavs, they know basketball, they are a tactical team. In the 2016 Pre-Olympics we played Croatia and lost in the semi-final. They played very tough defense. They don’t compare to now, but it’s a match and everything happens.”

On whether he sees something different in the current National Team from those of previous years: “Above all the respect that Spanoulis inspires, who has the mentality of a winner and transmits it to the children, which is very important. This year, Spanoulis is the right one to promote whatever pressure there is and take it all on himself. Vassilis is not affected by them.”