Serbia, USA in Boomers’ path to Paris golden game
The Boomers have been thrust into an Olympic men’s basketball quarter-final against Nikola Jokic’s Serbia while the United States would likely be next in a Paris semi-final.
The bracket was set for Tuesday’s quarter-final stage at Paris’s Bercy Arena after defending NBA MVP Jokic helped Serbia past South Sudan 96-85 to complete the pool stage in Lille.
Serbia finished second in their group behind the United States while South Sudan, featuring a host of current and former NBL players, were pipped for the final quarter-final spot by Greece on points differential.
Thanks to a superior points differential and Canada’s 3-0 record, the Boomers managed to finish second in their group despite only winning one of three games.
Australia impressed in a first-up defeat of Spain and played well in a loss to the stacked Canada, before a first half described by coach Brian Goorjian as “diabolical” in a loss to Greece almost saw them bundled out.
It’s a favourable match-up on recent form though, Tokyo bronze medallists Australia beat Serbia by 11 points in an Olympic warm-up clash in Abu Dhabi on their way to France last month.
Jokic, a silver medallist in 2016, will be a different beast with a spot in the final four on the line and the task only gets steeper against a stacked US team led by LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.
Sixteen-time gold medallists the US will play Brazil in their quarter-final on Tuesday, while Greece drew world champions Germany and the red-hot Canada will face hosts France in another mouth-watering clash.
Serbia – ranked fourth in the world by FIBA – led 33rd-ranked South Sudan 47-44 at half-time and were pushed all the way on Saturday night.
Serbia’s lead remained in single digits in the third quarter and they led by just five entering the fourth.
South Sudan kept coming, using a Peter Jok steal and alley-oop to Gabriel to bring the crowd to a roar and shrink the margin to a basket.
Serbia just kept making shots, using a 19-3 spurt to take a 91-74 lead with less than three minutes left.
Marial Shayok and Carlik Jones led South Sudan with 17 points each.
South Sudan had prepared for the Olympic spotlight since last September when they finished the World Cup as Africa’s highest ranked team, earning an automatic spot for the Paris Games.
Earlier in the day the United States completed a flawless pool stage with a 104-83 defeat of Puerto Rico, behind 26 points from Anthony Edwards.
With AP
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