There is no better way to bounce back from an embarrassing loss at the hands of the heavily favored Team USA than to pull off a blowout win.
That was what Serbia did as it crushed Puerto Rico, 107-66, in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 men’s basketball on Thursday, August 1 (Philippine time).
Locked in from the get-go, the Eagles soared to a 24-12 start but sputtered in the second, before breezing through their first win in Group C action at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.
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As expected, Nikola Jokic orchestrated Serbia’s attack with a near triple-double outing of 14 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists as the squad rebounded from an opening 110-84 loss to Kevin Durant-led Team USA.
Six others finished in double figures for the Eagles, with Filip Petrusev producing a team-best 15 points on top of nine boards.
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Vasilije Micic, whose three-pointer with 22 ticks to go gave the team a 39-point advantage, 105-66, finished with 14 markers while Bogdan Bogdanovic logged the same scoring output.
Aleksa Avramovic put in 12 points, Nikola Milutinov had 11, while Nikola Jovic added 10 for Serbia, which will next face an inspired South Sudan side.
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Serbia hardly had any trouble save for the second period, where Puerto Rico managed to drop 23 points on the World No. 4 team.
But Puerto Rico failed to capitalize on that.
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Christopher Ortiz paced the South American team with 19 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Ismael Romero added 10 points and five rebounds.
