Nikola Jokic playing for Team Serbia during the 2024 Summer Olympics. Image courtesy of Eurohoops
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris have certainly been a treat to watch, particularly in the basketball department. The men’s basketball tournament has seen various countries rise and fall to the occasion, with a plethora of blowouts, close defeats, and clutch comebacks occurring.
One team, in particular, who managed to witness both ends of that spectrum is Serbia. The Serbian men’s basketball team has been competitive and shown fight throughout the entire tournament, featuring the reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic at its helm. The team showed fight and resilience throughout their run, which ultimately ended shorter than they had hoped.
The Serbian men’s basketball team experienced the highest of highs when they stormed a comeback against Australia in the quarterfinals, which became the largest comeback in the history of Olympic basketball. Just two days later, however, Serbia would find themselves on the other end, with Team USA storming a huge comeback in the Semifinals — against none other than Serbia.
Serbia vs. Australia
In order to take home the Gold Medal in basketball, teams must make it through the group stage, and then win three games in the final tournament: the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Final. If one loss occurs in the tournament, it marks the end of that team’s chances.
Knowing this reality, Serbia would ensure they would not go home early. Their first matchup in the tournament was against Team Australia, a respectable basketball club featuring NBA talents Josh Giddey and Patty Mills. Serbia was favored to win the matchup, but Australia made lots of noise early.
Australia began the game extremely strong, nailing 19 of their first 24 shots of the game. In particular, Mills went off, notching 20 points in the first quarter, with Giddey running the plays. Before Serbia could blink, they were already down by double digits, and their chances of winning were looking faint.
During the first quarter, Serbian was primarily playing small, with coach Svetislav Pesic not playing Jokic and Nikola Milutinov, their two biggest players, together for many minutes. The second quarter would see Pesic adjust, placing Jokic and Milutinov in the lineup together, and it wielded big results.
The Comeback
Jokic and Milutinov, along with defender Aleksa Avramovic, appeared to find it together, displaying why Serbia is one of the world’s basketball greats. They would manage to slow Mills and Giddey down in the second quarter, and by its end, the score was a much closer and more respectable 54-42 in favor of Australia.
The momentum was completely in Serbia’s favor in the second half, with the team opening the third quarter on an extremely strong and high note. Australia committed three turnovers early and Bogdan Bogdanovic would go on to make three straight three-pointers, giving Serbia their first lead of the game at 67-65, and successfully surmounting the largest deficit in Olympic basketball history, at 24.
Australia did not give up, however. Mills, who was the star and centerpiece of their team the entire game, would end up nailing a pull-up shot over Jokic with one second remaining, which tied the game at 82 and sent it to overtime. The two teams would exchange blows in overtime, until Jokic stole the ball from Mills and nailed the shot to make it 93-90 in favor of Serbia.
Australia would end the game on a turnover which allowed Bogdanovic to end it from the free throw line, and with that, Serbia would take the game by a final score of 95-90. Comebacks only mean something when the team ends up winning the game, and Serbia did so, successfully mounting the largest comeback in Olympic basketball history.
Serbia vs. USA
The newfound momentum that Serbia had possessed after mounting the greatest comeback in tournament history carried into their next game against Team USA. The Americans were long-favored to win the entire tournament, and when Serbia went up big over them early, it sent shockwaves through the basketball world.
Unlike the previous game, in which Australia went up by double digits in the first quarter but Serbia made it close by the second quarter, and then the two exchanged blows down the stretch, Serbia was in control for the vast majority of the game versus Team USA.
They went up by double digits early on, and it appeared that each time the USA attempted to make a comeback, Serbia would put the pedal to the metal. By the fourth quarter, Team USA was still down by double digits, and it was getting late early. The favorites to win the tournament were quickly going to be on the outside looking in if things did not change.
The Blown Lead
Change, they did. Serbia, after managing to make a historic comeback in their previous game, allowed Team USA to make a historic comeback in this game. With seven minutes remaining in the game, Serbia led by 11 points. It would be all USA after that, after the Americans scored six points in just two seconds.
As Anthony Davis got fouled, Kevin Durant nailed a clutch three-pointer. Off the inbound, Devin Booker got the ball and nailed another three pointer: six points in two seconds. That sequence proved to the world why Team USA were the favorites, since they could pull off clutch moves in minute time.
A lead which was once 78-67 Serbia was now 78-73. The landscape shifted in rapid time, and with 2:16 left, the Americans went up for good, with Stephen Curry nailing a three-pointer. He had 36 points in the game, putting his country on his back to ensure the U.S. would win, and win they did.
Unfortunately for the Serbians, the glory of mounting a historic comeback just two days prior would be short-lived, as they would officially blow their own lead to Team USA, with the Americans winning the game by a final score of 95-91. The U.S. improved to 144-6 all-time in Olympic basketball play, and will have a chance for the Gold Medal against another powerhouse, Team France.
Serbia’s run in the 2024 Summer Olympics became a microcosm of the highs and lows of glory. A certain irony exists regarding pulling off a historic comeback, only to give one up and find yourself on the outside looking in. But that is exactly what Serbia’s Olympic run ended in: irony.
