Any discussion about Serbia starts with Teodosic, one of the best guards in Europe over the past decade, and he might explore an National Basketball Association deal at some point.
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Serbia’s win guaranteed its first Olympic medal in men’s basketball since gaining independence in 2006. As for Jokic, his stock continues to rise as a result of his stellar play this summer.
“It’s a tough one for us”, Andrew Bogut said.
Still, there’s no doubt that since the appointment of Djordjevic as coach in 2014, he has been a different player for the national team.
But all they could muster was 14 points to Serbia’s 35 in the first-half, and hit just 22 shots from 66 attempts for the game.
Serbia lost to France by one point in its next contest and lost by three to the U.S.
“They’re talented, they’ve got a few very good pieces and have been playing together for a very long time”, he said.
The Serbians held the Australians to just 33 percent shooting for the game, with the Boomers managing just 14 points in the first half.
It’s the first time they have competed as an independent nation at the Olympics, while the Americans are riding a 24-game Olympic winning streak and chasing their third straight gold.
Ingles not only provided the most quotable reaction to the Serbian disaster, he also gave the best line when asked about how hard it would be to regroup for the bronze medal game against Spain in two days. A horrendous start negated everything the Boomers had going for them.
“I know this group and the pride that they have in the way they play the game and the way they represent Australia on the global stage”.
“We haven’t really been challenged with that in this tournament”.
Assistant coach Luc Longley, who had played for Australia in Olympic bronze medal matches and come away with nothing, said “All of us, coaching staff as well, have to take stock”, Longley said.
The Boomers looked destined to challenge the seemingly unbeatable United States for gold until their semi-final loss to Serbia – which National Basketball Association small forward Joe Ingles labelled “pathetic”.
“I didn’t see that one coming, ” he said. Andrew Bogut, who worked his way to Brazil after suffering a knee injury in the NBA Finals, had just four points and couldn’t carve out any space in the lane.
“Australia is a lot better than this [but] this is sport”.
Mills scored 13 for the Aussies, but was only 1-of-9 on three-point shots.
Serbia built a 24-point lead in the second quarter on a three-point play by the talented Teodosic, who has become friends with USA coach Mike Krzyzewski.
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“But we’ve still got a medal to get and we haven’t done that before so to drop our bundle now wouldn’t be like this team”.
