Olympic Basketball Roundup: Dario Saric and Croatia Fearlessly Disrupt Day 2
Dario Saric and Croatia likely won't collect a gold medal in Rio, but they'll gladly accept their new status as Olympic underdog darlings.
Saric's last-second rejection of a Pau Gasol lay-in helped Croatia down powerhouse Spain on Sunday, 72-70, further muddying a group stage already complicated by France's blowout loss the day before.
Both presumptive Team USA challengers have now fallen in their opening efforts, and Lithuania, another theoretical threat, barely survived its first game. More on that later.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
This is about Croatia's sweet upset—which it was, according to Saric himself, via John Schuhmann of NBA.com:
Saric's block sealed it, and though he struggled to a 1-of-7 finish from the field, the 6'10" Philadelphia 76ers rookie showed deft passing and a competitive edge on the glass. He led Croatia with five assists and seven rebounds. For especially greedy Sixers fans, it might have been more encouraging to see Saric converting inside or knocking down jumpers with confidence. With Ben Simmons looking like a shooting-deficient floor leader and setup man, the Sixers need finishers.
But after highlight blocks like the one Saric produced at the buzzer, it's tough to be too critical.
In further exciting news for Philly supporters, Spain's Sergio Rodriguez got more run than Ricky Rubio at the point. Rodriguez will also suit up for the Sixers next season.
Weathering Gasol's game-high 26 points and Spain's early offensive dominance, Croatia roared back to win behind some "where'd that come from?" defensive tenacity and the confident scoring of Bojan Bogdanovic, who offset Gasol's scoring total with 23 points of his own. The Brooklyn Nets wing got particularly frisky when Spain's lumbering reserves took the floor, per Schuhmann:
Bogdanovic blew past the lead-footed Spanish bigs for easy finishes at the rim and stretched them out to uncomfortable distances on the perimeter. As The Vertical analyst and former Nets executive Bobby Marks observed, Bogdanovic was in his element as Croatia's No. 1 option:
At 27, Bogdanovic won't use these Olympics as some sort of developmental springboard. He is what he is, and the Nets shouldn't expect a leap.
But if leading Croatia on an improbable run (it has the fifth-worst chance to win gold, per OddsShark.com) gives him a little extra oomph in the 2016-17 NBA season, all the better for Brooklyn.
In the first quarter, it didn't look like Bogdanovic's scoring would matter. Spain moved the ball brilliantly in the early going, yielding clean looks inside and a parade of uncontested threes. If it had capitalized on just a few more of its long-range chances, the contest could have been over by halftime.
Croatia did what it could to exploit Rubio's suspect shooting, essentially leaving him alone on the perimeter to double elsewhere. The tactic, along with three early fouls, limited Rubio to just 12 minutes in the contest.
For Spain, the defeat represents a disappointing but hardly fatal blow. It survived two group-stage losses in London four years ago before making the gold medal game anyway. In addition to experience handling past adversity, Spain can also count on more than zero combined points from Rubio, Rudy Fernandez and Alex Abrines (who didn't even see the floor) going forward.
Croatia's future is hazier.
It'd be a mistake to read too much into this lone win, to suddenly peg Bogdanovic and Saric as a silver medal-winning duo. But having an alpha scorer, a versatile young talent and, apparently, a defense with legitimate switch-flipping capabilities gives this club a chance against almost anyone. If Mario Hezonja ever gets more than the two inches of leash every coach (including this one) allows him, perhaps Croatia could become something more than that.
For now, Saric's block is the highlight of the tournament, and Croatia is sitting pretty in group play.
That's plenty.
Lithuania Survives Brazilian Chaos
The blowout streak that began with a Saturday trio of games decided by at least 21 points apiece came to a screeching halt Sunday, with host Brazil mounting a frantic but ultimately insufficient comeback in the first game of the day, an 82-76 loss to Lithuania.
"That's the real Brazil," point guard Raul Neto told Kurt Kragthorpe of the Salt Lake Tribune of his team's spirited run. "We had two different teams."
Lithuania's flowing attack found little resistance in the first half, dicing up a shoddy Brazilian defense with rigid set plays that seamlessly transitioned into devastating fallback pick-and-rolls. Physical and precise, Lithuania extended its advantage to 30 points early in the third quarter.
Thanks to a chaotic surge from Leandro Barbosa and a, shall we say, favorable home whistle, Brazil managed to trim the deficit to four down the stretch. Barbosa led all scorers with 21 points, and Lithuania didn't shoot a single free throw in the second half until Domantas Sabonis was hacked finishing an and-1 layup with just 1:19 left in the game. Overall, Brazil nearly doubled Lithuania's foul-shot total, 35-18.
The final result could have been even closer if Brazil hadn't adopted some truly bizarre late-game fouling tactics. Down five with less than a minute remaining, Brazil didn't intentionally foul until after letting 21 seconds run off the shot clock. That strategic error will be easily remedied, but it's unclear whether the poor offensive spacing and inattentive defense that created the 30-point hole in the first place can be fixed.
Brazil shot just 2-of-14 from long range and simply couldn't pierce a contracted Lithuanian defense with anything other than the wildest of Barbosa's free-wheeling drives. Before Brazil went on its crowd-fueled run, Lithuania was in total control—even though it only got six points and three rebounds from star center Jonas Valanciunas.
As Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun observed, some of Valanciunas' limited impact stemmed from a Lithuanian strategy frustratingly familiar to Toronto Raptors fans:
Depth and confident execution helped the lead grow early, and those traits will help Lithuania threaten to medal. When veterans like 32-year-old Paulius Jankunas can look totally dominant for long stretches underneath (he finished with 15 points and seven rebounds), and Mantas Kalnietis efficiently runs the show (16 points and eight assists), Lithuania can beat all but the world's very best teams without production from Valanciunas.
If Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Sabonis adjusts quickly to the size and physicality of seasoned opponents, he'll put his NBA team at ease and figure heavily into Lithuania's ultimate fate in this tournament. Despite scoring 10 points, the Gonzaga product was visibly overmatched underneath and on the perimeter. He struggled to finish over length, and a glaring weakness in his skill set made interior touches tougher than they had to be, according to NBA analyst Nate Duncan:
Still, the young Lithuanian flashed the ball skills and intelligence you'd expect from someone with his famous pedigree. If he can overcome his physical disadvantages, he'll make a difference in Rio.
Argentina Rolls
Argentina dashed hopes of drama early, blitzing Nigeria with an 11-0 run to start the final game in Group B play Sunday. The only meeting of the day that was never in doubt ended with a 94-66 win for Manu Ginobili's squad.
Playing in his last Olympics, the 39-year-old scored five points and set up Andres Nocioni for a triple in that opening spurt, part of a 12-point night that featured five assists and five rebounds in 26 minutes. Luis Scola, Argentina's other seasoned vet, poured in 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Patricio Garino, a 23-year-old undrafted signee by (you guessed it) the San Antonio Spurs, was particularly impressive, needing little time and few field-goal attempts to do his damage from the perimeter.
Paul Garcia of Project Spurs had the details:
Nigeria got 15 points and 13 rebounds from Ike Diogu, but shot just 38.7 percent from the field while permitting a frightening number of three-point attempts. Argentina fired up 34 treys against a disjointed defense, hitting 15 of them on the night. Surviving the group stage was always going to be a long shot for Nigeria, and Sunday's performance showed why.
Argentina draws Croatia on Tuesday in what should be the most compelling matchup so far.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
