{"id":121575,"date":"2025-09-05T21:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T21:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/121575\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T21:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T21:01:38","slug":"unstoppable-jokic-keeps-serbia-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/121575\/","title":{"rendered":"Unstoppable Jokic keeps Serbia perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The official EuroBasket app<\/p>\n

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RIGA (Latvia) – For most of the first half, Portugal were hanging around and were within a couple of possessions against Serbia. However, when Nikola Jokic goes on his personal runs, there is not a lot any opponent can do about it.<\/p>\n

Serbia won the game 80-69<\/a>, climbing to 2-0 in Group A ahead of the big game against the hosts Latvia on Saturday. Meanwhile, Portugal dropped to 1-1.<\/p>\n

Turning Point<\/p>\n

With Diogo Brito scoring a quick 14 points, and Neemias Queta getting a two-pointer to cut it to 37-33, it seemed like Portugal could test Serbia for the full 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

That’s when Nikola Jokic said: “Dosta je bilo.”* <\/p>\n

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Nikola Jokic flying high on Friday<\/p>\n

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Nikola Jokic flying high on Friday<\/p>\n

The center scored in all kinds of ways, layups, floaters, a three-pointer, and even a dunk, dropping 13 straight points for Serbia, pushing them towards a 50-35 lead in the third quarter, just enough to secure a peaceful finish to the encounter, even with Portugal fighting until the final buzzer.<\/p>\n

(*That’s enough, in Serbian.)<\/p>\n

TCL Player of the Game<\/p>\n

Nikola Jokic finished with 23 points in 23 minutes, making 8-of-10 shots from the field, with 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, piling together an efficiency rating of 35.<\/p>\n

That was his second double-double in this event, as well as his sixth in his last seven FIBA EuroBasket appearances. <\/p>\n

Stats Don’t Lie<\/p>\n

Portugal managed to slow down Serbia’s offensive flow, forcing 15 turnovers. That being said, Serbia’s usual flow is on another level, and they still dished out 23 assists, compared to Portugal’s 16 on the day. <\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/p>\n

While going up to 2-0 is what coach Svetislav Pesic hoped for, there were two major concerns for him in this game. Less than five minutes after tip-off, Filip Petrusev committed a disqualifying foul, ending his day early.<\/p>\n

Then, late in the first half, Bogdan Bogdanovic suffered what seems like a hamstring injury, and did not return to the court, nor to the bench after the break. The rotation was even shorter, as Vasilije Micic played just nine minutes, too.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Portugal put up a fight for the ages, even with Neemias Queta limited to 6 points in 21 minutes. Brito finished with a team-high 22 points, while also getting 9 rebounds. <\/p>\n

Serbia take on Latvia, while Portugal face T\u00fcrkiye next.<\/p>\n

They Said<\/p>\n

“They too have a short time to recover, they did play before us today, but two hours more or less, I’m not sure it’s gonna matter that much. They had a tough close game against Estonia, we had a tough game against Portugal, but I’m sure it’s going to be a good game.” – Nikola Jovic, Serbia<\/p>\n

“It’s true that I did a very hard box-out on him, but I think it’s still a basketball play. His reaction was a bit hot-headed, he did punch me in the belly. I’m sorry he got ejected, but it was the refs’ decision and there’s nothing much I can do about it.” – Diogo Brito, Portugal, talking about the incident with Filip Petrusev, resulting in a disqualifying foul<\/p>\n

For more quotes, tune in to the official post-game press conference!<\/p>\n

FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The official EuroBasket app Download Now RIGA (Latvia) – For most of the first half, Portugal were hanging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-121575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}