Jul 31, 2024; Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France; United States small forward Jayson Tatum (10) grabs a rebound in the first quarter against South Sudan during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Stade Pierre-Mauroy. | John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Win this one and the USA plays for gold Saturday
Former Blue Devil Jayson Tatum and Team USA as you probably know, are in the medal round of the Olympic basketball tournament and play again Thursday, this time against Serbia.
And Serbia means the great Nikola Jokic.
In the previous two games recently, one an exhibition and one that counts, the US won 105-79 and more recently 110-84 in Group C pool play.
In that game, Jokic played 30:45 and for that time, the Serbs played Team USA dead even, 89-89.
The rest of the game, thanks to Kevin Durant, the US outscored Serbia 29-3.
Coach Steve Kerr is understandably wary of Serbia, suggesting on the one hand that Jokic might play 40 minutes and on the other that the Serbs may have another trick up their sleeve that the Americans have not seen yet.
That’s certainly possible but the thing about a guy like Jokic is that he’s a force multiplier. On his own he’s slow and not overly athletic but his unbelievable passing ability means that he can get the ball to anyone at any time.
We don’t know all the players on this team well, but Jokic is a future Hall of Famer, Bogdan Bogdanovic is with the Atlanta Hawks, Nikola Jovic plays for the Miami Heat, Vaselije Micic for the Charlotte Hornets and we saw some nice glimpses from Filip Petrusev as well.
Could Serbia win?
Heck yes they could win. Jokic is brilliant at finding cutters and he can slice a defense to ribbons. And if someone gets hot from outside, that’s another big problem.
The European habit of raining threes while the US settles for twos seems to have lessened lately, largely because the US has great three point shooters now too and hasn’t fallen into the habit of panicking when the other team hangs around or builds a lead.
The same basic Krzyzewskian formula still works.
Starting in 2008, Team USA focused on building roles and playing aggressive, punishing defense that leads to turnovers and fast breaks. In that world, no one can keep pace with the Yanks. We’ve been struck with how some seemingly casual moments reveal profound athleticism with this team - a casual but powerful pass, catching a ball that’s about to go out of bounds that’s flipped to a teammate or just leaping over someone to get a rebound.
Every team has weaknesses, and this one is no exception. But athleticism is not remotely a weakness.
Even so, Serbia is a very dangerous opponent and you just don’t know what to expect from the Joker. That guy lives in a parallel basketball world and seems to teleport down to teach us mortals a higher form of the game. Losing to Serbia wouldn't be pleasurable but seeing a guy play at that level is sublime.
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