Serbia vs. Brazil: FIBA World Cup 2014 Quarterfinal Score and Twitter Reaction
The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup is winding down, though the action remains hot, with Serbia and Brazil meeting in Wednesday's first quarterfinal game. This was a rematch of a Group A game that was won by Brazil, but this time around it was all Serbia, who came out on top 84-56.
| Serbia | 21 | 16 | 29 | 18 | 84 |
| Brazil | 17 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 56 |
While the offense more than held its own in this matchup, Serbia's defense was the story. It held Leandro Barbosa scoreless until midway through the third quarter. This was a game of runs for Serbia, closing the second quarter on an 8-0 run that extended to 12-0 early in the third quarter.
That really was Serbia's key stretch. Brazil was trailing by five at halftime, but the deficit grew to nine from Brazil's slow start to the third quarter. After an Anderson Varejao layup got the Brazilians on the board in the second half, Serbia went on another 9-0 run to go up by 16.
The alarming part of this game for Brazil is how quickly everything fell apart. This was a close game that looked like it could go either direction in the first half. Then Serbia pulled away in the third quarter, as this stat from ESPN Stats & Info pointed out:
"Serbia with a huge 3rd qtr, outscoring Brazil 29-12. Now up 66-44 to start the 4th. #FIBAWorldCup2014
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 10, 2014"
Credit for Brazil's struggles goes to Serbia's defense. The Brazilians were held to 33.8 shooting from the field (22-of-65) in the game.
Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post highlighted Nene's lack of production:
Varejao was doing everything in his power to help Brazil, hustling all over the floor and racking up points and rebounds:
The rest of the team wasn't able to break through Serbia's stout defense, though. Varejao was the only Brazilian in double figures at the start of the fourth quarter with 12 points. Marquinhos Vieira would also finish with 12 points in defeat.
On the other side, Serbia was shooting the lights out. Milos Teodosic was the star of the game with 23 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line, adding four assists and three rebounds just for good measure.
Speaking about Teodosic during Serbia's last game against Greece, ESPN's Fran Fraschilla noted what has made the point guard so effective throughout this tournament:
Teodosic wasn't alone in displaying a nice shooting touch. Phoenix Suns 2014 first-round pick Bogdan Bogdanovic, who had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting (2-of-5 from three-point range), was on point. He added two blocks and six rebounds off the bench.
It's fitting this performance from him and the team came one day after he blogged about Serbia's potential for EuroLeague.net:
"I said last week from Granada that my team and I expected to get better moving forward in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, that we had not played our best game yet. That wish came true in Madrid this weekend. We arrived from fourth place in our group to play Greece, the first-place team from Group B. They were unbeaten while we had lost three games, but we were able to defeat Greece by 18 points with a strong second half.
"
Serbia nearly didn't make the knockout round. It finished 2-3 in Group A, getting the final spot to advance to the round of 16. Expectations weren't high entering Sunday's game against Greece, but Bogdanovic found his shooting touch in a 90-72 win.
Then Serbia locked it down on defense and maintained the outstanding shooting touch from the Greece game to knock off Brazil.
Just as it has in the previous two games, Serbia will enter the semifinals as an underdog. It will play the winner of the Spain-France contest on Friday in Madrid. Regardless of what happens this weekend, Serbia should take comfort knowing that it will at least get the chance to play for a bronze medal.
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