With nothing to lose and supported by hundreds of fans, Slovenian players have promised to give their best against the NBA stars.

Slovenia's best player, point guard Goran Dragić, half-jokingly said he is dreaming about an exciting finish of the game, in which he hits a game-winning three at the buzzer and takes Slovenia to the semi-finals.

"On paper, the US have a much stronger team, and we will have to play really fantastic to catch them off guard," says the sole Slovenian NBA player, who believes that Slovenia's biggest, if not the only advantage are the fans.

Forward Edo Murić is meanwhile more optimistic. "We have to take this game as any other game and go for a win. We will not surrender in advance, that's for sure, as we will have numerous fans behind us and we have to show them what we are capable of".

Slovenian head coach Jure Zdovc still remembers vividly the recent pre-tournament warm-up match against the US, which Slovenia lost by 30 points. "We need to be patient and concentrated for the entire 40 minutes. We have to start with energy and the belief that we can make it."

In Spain, Slovenia made it among the top eight nations in the world for the second time, the first time coming four years ago in Turkey, when Slovenia lost in the quarter-finals to the host of the tournament.