The basketball team of Serbia started its participation in the Olympic Games with a defeat (110:84) in the long-awaited duel with the USA team. Reinforced by the best basketball player in the world and strengthened by an excellent start to the game, Svetislav Pešić's team only managed to stay competitive with the best team and the main favorite for the gold in Paris until halftime. The continuation of the game demonstrated the difference in the depth of quality and talent in the compositions of these two teams, so the Americans defeated us for the second time in a short period of time by a large margin.
NOTHING WITHOUT OLD MEN
The beginning of the match of the Serbian national team was from the "what you can only wish for" edition. The courage and aggressiveness of our basketball players, both in defense and in attack, forced the coach of the American national team, Steve Kerr, to call a timeout after less than three minutes of the game, dissatisfied with the game of his chosen ones because they found themselves in a score deficit (2:10), but also a deficit when it comes to voluntary moment and energy. Serbia entered the game energetically and smartly, and the fact that the first 10 points were scored by Avramović, Dobrić and Petrushev was particularly pleasing, which allowed players who were not the main players to enter the game in the right way, and that is a prerequisite for success against the dominant team. opponent.
The expected reaction of the American team was not absent - Curry and Booker announced a brilliant shooting night for the USA national team with tied threes, and then LeBron James and Kevin Durant took complete control of the game. The two players who marked world and NBA basketball in the past twenty years showed all their quality, authority and experience, but also delighted with their desire and energy in their late playing years. After missing the entire preparatory period due to a calf injury, Durant scored 21 points and five three-pointers by halftime. The two of them, thirty-five-year-old Durant and thirty-nine-year-old LeBron, collectively shot without a miss from the field (13/13) and led the USA to a comfortable difference (58:49) by the end of the half, and let their younger teammates know that the keys to the team are still in by the hands of "old men".
LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
The fans in Serbia had no reason to be dissatisfied with what they saw in the first half. After an excellent start to the game and the response of the USA national team, Jokić and Bogdanović entered the game in a quality way. Jokic shared distinctive passes, gained advantage in the low post and was active on the rebound, which forced Kerr to rotate players to guard him.
In his statement after the game, the coach of the American national team pointed out that there are as many as three players in his team who can respond to Jokić's game with quality: Embiid, Davis and Adebayo, and that is a luxury that only the strongest teams have. Hand on heart, the naturalized Embiid did not perform at his best, so he finished the game as the only USA player with a negative +/ - performance - with him in the game, the American national team was behind by eight points.
When we already mention this statistical category, we should point out an incredible piece of data that best describes how important Nikola Jokić is to the game of the Serbian national team. With him on the field, Serbia was in a complete tie (81:81), while the period with Jokić on the bench was used by the opponent to make an incredible difference (3:29). Bearing in mind that he spent almost 31 minutes on the field and during that time achieved 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds, it is clear that the key to the success of the Serbian national team in the following games is in the five-man games without Jokić. Will Pešić try to do it by reducing the minutes played together by Jokić and Bogdanović, so that he will have at least one of our two best players on the floor for most of the game, or will he continue to believe in the greater contribution of Micić, Gudurić and Milutinov, among others , remains to be seen. For a more successful continuation of the Serbian national team tournament, it is necessary for someone to join Jokić, Bogdanović and Dobrić in a quality offensive contribution.
The impression is that Serbia could have done better when it comes to defensive play. A better selection of fouls, increased aggressiveness on the perimeter in moments when it became clear that the American national team could hardly miss by three points (they ended the game with 56 percent of three-point shots) and better communication were necessary to prevent situations where players like Booker and Curry are left alone on the three-point shot or centers like Davis and Adebayo on the dunk.
LET'S BE REALISTIC
However, as always, one should look at the circumstances realistically. In the previous part of the text, we mentioned some of the biggest names in the world of basketball - Lebron, Durant, Curry, Embiid - and all of them were on the opposite side of our national team. Apart from the players who left the best impression, it is even more impressive to highlight who was not on the court: Tatum and Halliburton, the best players of the teams that crossed spears in the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA League, sat out the entire game, while the MVP of the final series Jaylen Brown due to the decision of the Kerr selector, he didn't even get to wave a towel on the bench. The Americans have incredible quality and depth in the lineup, and according to the opinions of numerous basketball chroniclers and analysts, the only two American lineups that match this year's in terms of quality are the famous Dream Team from 1992 and redeem team from 2008.
Still, that shouldn't be an excuse for a 26-point loss, which followed a loss by an identical margin in the preliminaries. In that match, Serbia appeared weakened by not playing Bogdanović, but there was no Durant on the other side either. The basketball players of South Sudan and Germany showed that they can compete with the Americans, who, on the eve of the OI, provided much greater resistance to the strongest team in the world. The game against South Sudan will be one of the next two that the Serbian national team simply must win. In theory, a big defeat against the USA can be a big problem for the third-placed team in our group, so it can easily happen that only two, not three teams from our group will go to the quarterfinals, because of the mentioned goal difference. That's why Svetislav Pešić's players are expecting two extremely important games in the group stage, games in which they need to regain the confidence gained through victories and good games against France, Japan and Greece.
In the composition of the Serbian national team, there are a lot of players who do not have experience playing in the NBA league, and perhaps that is exactly what is necessary for a more serious opposition to the American team. The public in Serbia dreams of Olympic gold and victory over the favored Americans, but returning from Paris with a medal of any splendor would be a huge success. For such a thing, it is necessary to overcome the unpredictable Puerto Ricans and the athletically gifted South Sudanese, and then provide the best possible game in the quarterfinals, because there will be no easy opponents there. This basketball tournament is the best in the history of the Olympic Games, and for us it is just beginning.
