LAST UPDATE | 6 Aug
NIKOLA JOKIC LED Serbia into the men’s Olympic basketball semi-finals on Tuesday as they rallied from 24 points down to edge Australia 95-90 in overtime and set up a potential showdown with the United States.
Patty Mills scored 26 points for Australia, including 14 in-a-row during a 20-0 run spanning the first and second quarters, but Serbia hung tough and gradually erased the deficit to pull off an epic comeback.
Three-time NBA MVP Jokic tallied 21 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists and received plenty of help from his supporting cast. Bogdan Bogdanovic had 17 points as one of five other players to hit double figures for Serbia.
Australia made it through the group stage despite losing two of three games, whereas Serbia pipped South Sudan to second in their section behind Team USA.
Serbia, beaten 110-84 by the US in their tournament opener, could meet the reigning four-time champions again in the semi-finals if the Americans get past Brazil later on Tuesday.
Earlier, World Cup champions Germany reached the semi-finals for the first time, coming from behind to beat Greece 76-63 and dump two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo out of the Games.
Trailing by as many as 12 in the first quarter, Germany had drawn level at 36-36 by half time and after a tense third quarter, roared away in the fourth to book a meeting with either host nation France or Canada for a place in the final.
NBA star Antetokounmpo scored 22 points but 18 points in reply from Franz Wagner was enough for Germany to maintain their four-game unbeaten record.
Wagner said the whole German team pulled together to slow Antetokounmpo.
“It was more than half of the scouting report, so a big part of our preparation,” he said of the need to contain the Greek superstar.
“It takes all five on the court to try to stop him, but I thought we did a good job, especially in the second half, of at least trying to contain him.”
“We struggled with their physicality, but I thought our second group came in and did an outstanding job in that end of the first quarter and really kind of gave us the energy and physicality to get back in the game,” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said.
“We made a couple of changes with the defensive game plan and that’s all we did really.”
- Updated 4.18pm after Serbia v Australia
