Nikola Jokic's Impact on Serbia's Narrow Loss Explained

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00:00They're ball movement for the open man. They were doubling Joker at times and leaving a

00:07guy wide open every time. And you know, it's a kiss of death with that guy, Joker, when

00:11he finds the open man and they were like shooting corner pockets, switch all net splash threes.

00:17I couldn't believe they went cold, Kyle, honestly.

00:21Yeah. That's why the one where, you know, I was talking to you about it before Doberts

00:25was wide open on the right wing. Serbia was, I think, up by four points with like two and

00:29a half minutes left. He had been hitting those all night, the balls in mid flight. And I'm

00:32like, wow, they're really going to lose this game. And then he somehow missed. And that

00:36kind of, again, catalyzed the United States comeback. But, you know, to your point, that's

00:39kind of the, you know, the risk that you play against Nicole Yoke. It's like, he's so gifted

00:43as a passer that if you double team him, he's going to find the open man, like a sixth sense.

00:47It's incredible. There was a play in the fourth quarter also where I think it was LeBron James

00:51came to double from the baseline. Someone cut, it might've been Bogdanovich cut baseline

00:55and Yoke it's before LeBron could even get there on the double team through a head pass

00:59behind his head, right to Bogdanovich for an easy layup. But, you know, bogey was a

01:02killer yesterday. He, it looked, it seemed like he gave himself a little bit of like

01:06added motivation. He was talking trash with Mello courtside. And, you know, I know Mello

01:10was probably letting Serbia hear it back in 2016, when the United States beat them in

01:14the group stage and then smoked them by 30 points in the gold medal match in bogey was

01:18on that team as well.

01:19So maybe that's why he had a little bit more to his game. But, you know, like you said,

01:23he was a huge, huge reason why they had built the lead they did. And then, you know, those

01:27are real tears at the end. Like Serbia has to feel like they really let that one slip

01:32away. And that's where, you know, the United States, like with the momentum that they're

01:35carrying going into the gold medal match, I don't know how they could fall flat on their

01:39face after a game like that.