This is why I don't bet point spread on basketball games. Did Serbia stop playing in the final couple of minutes ?
Yeah, just fucking around and playing the bottom of the roster. Anyway I guessed that Puerto Rico will cover the spread, we always start home tournaments slow. That has been a tradition now. In general, what I noted before the game kind of came true. Moron Raduljica got 3 fouls called in 3 minutes and our already depleted frontcourt was forced to play a short rotation in the first game of the tournament. I hate that, you pay for those kinds of things later.
Raduljica and Bircevic have a collective IQ of -2 Veselys. Bircevic did manage to shoot well, but overall his defensive play and 3 2+1 fouls is just mind-boggling. Raduljica, I will not waste any time on that idiot and his defensive performances. Whenever teams decide to zone vs him (like Puerto Rico did) he might as well go home, he is useless. The shot was open all the game but was not falling that well for us. That is OK, those things tend to improve.
Nedovic had a great energizer bunny performance and that is a perfect role for him. As long as he doesn't get into turnover dance, he will always be a great bench spark and a tough 1-on-1 matchup for anyone going against him. Jokic if you look at the stats looks like he had a great game, that is far from the truth actually. He seemed uninterested and a bit tense (normal for a first official game I guess) and didn't shoot FT well, passing was lacking as well as movement.
MVP of the night for me though is Nikola Kalinic. What a game by him. He defines a team player and an unselfish guy and yet he did a great job today. He played both SF and PF, defended very well. He had 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals, as well as 4 drawn fouls. He was nearly flawless in his shooting with I think just one miss on an offensive rebound tip in. All that in 20 minutes. He did all the little things right. Great night.
Bogdanovic played solid defense and was active on the boards and passing the ball. He had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists while mostly playing at SF spot. He didn't shoot well but this is normal for him. He forces the shot, we all know that. Teodosic played well for others, didn't push as much as Bogdanovic but there was no need. Whenever he entered the game the lead would grow quickly so he didn't need to push.
In general solid first game, many of the same concerns we had before the tournaments came true though. Angola is an easy pick, so we won't know where we are until we play Czech/Latvia on Friday.
