Reporting from the final two days of exclusive coverage of the World Championships, LCB Live Blog takes you to the second basketball event today played at Wukesong Sports Arena in Beijing, China!
Coming off the heels of the USA vs. Poland game, we cover the match to decide on the fifth-placed team at the tournament, a hard-fought sports battle between…
Serbia and the Czech Republic!
Similar to Brazil or Germany in soccer, anything less than the first place at any international basketball competition in which the Serbian team participates is considered utter failure! The notion of being the ultimate in the world is ingrained in national DNA; rich history and a proven track of record (two-time world and three-time European champions in the last 20 years) are there only to underline the fact.
To no surprise, early exit from 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup medals’ games sent the nation into mourning and raging delirium of mixed feelings. Thus, to give their countrymen at least some kind of sign-off show is of paramount importance for Serbs, head coached by national legend currently taking the full brunt of public disappointment.
(If you think basketball setup is excessive, have in mind that the same national expectations exist in water polo and volleyball; there is no second best when it comes to this triad.)
Their opponent, the Czech Republic team — officially ranking 24th in the world — enjoys in their first-ever World Cup appearance, with the best team result coming on European championship in 2015 (7th place).
Relaxed by not having to carry the weight of favorites not only in this match but in the whole tournament, Czechs are presumably to enter the game ready to embrace the role of underdog, to take basketball giant down, and get back home with a fifth win from China.
Of course, our basketball correspondent (Instagram page kosarkanadlanu) is on the bleachers, ready to see whether the heavily favored Serbian team — 1.11 vs. 7.8 odds on Czechs at sports betting shops; yup, that would be $780 for you on $100 wager if Serbia loses — will prevail or not!
Not alone, though…
…as we take you LCB’ers to the epicenter of this game!
Serbian team came out with a statement: three-pointer from Bogdan Bogdanovic! They followed it up with a couple of more points to take a 7:2 lead. Then, in a reminiscence of oscillations showed in the tournament thus far, they allowed Czechs to recover and equalize the game.
Playing point-for-point up to 15:15, Serbian team took off to 20:15 after a few nice moves from Jovic, Bogdanovic, and Raduljica with 2:26 remaining in the first quarter.
Ronen Ginzburg, head coach of the Czech team, prudently called the time out. The outcome was increased pressure by his team and the equalizer (20:20) which was the result of Q1.
Interesting statistics emerge: Serbian team had 87% of 2 pointers vs. 17% of Czechs; teams were equaled in free throws and 3-pointers as well as in assists, but Serbs made 8 turnovers while Czechs had 5 steals.
It appears that pressure was already well present, particularly of the side of favorites.
Pavel Pumprla started Q2 with a couple of points which resulted in 24:21 lead for the Czech Republic, the harbinger of things to come.
As the Serbian team kept playing nervous, the advantage of their opponents kept increasing: with 5:48 remaining until the end of H1, Czechs lead with 32-26.
After two minutes without a point, Ginzburg called for another time-out, and his team went back on the court reinvigorated, again: Martin Peterka scored three points right afterward, Ondrej Balvin made the alley-oop to increase their lead to nine points.
In an effort to stop this offensive, Aleksandar Djordjevic, head coach of the Serbian team, called for a time out. To no avail: with 4:22 remaining, his team was trailing ten points. It was the second time out Djordjevic called that seemed to move his players a bit.
Bogdanovic started a series with three-pointers as Serbs began to execute their trademark good defense. Slowly recovering and allowing for only five points in the next three minutes, they pressed Czech team hard — with 0:38 remaining in the first half, they cut their opponents’ lead to five points!
However, Tomas Satoransky made a three-point jump shot to increase Czechs lead to 50:41 and end the first halftime.
During the second quarter, Serbian team continued to statistically dominate their opponents in two-pointer category (69% vs. 39% of Czechs), but trailed in 3pts, assists, and steals, while making 11 turnovers.
After the usual pause, the second half of the match started in a déjà vu manner with Bogdanovic’s 3pt jump shot! Playing like there is no tomorrow, Serbian players pressed Czechs hard: 150 after the Q3 started, the advantage of the later was cut down from 9 to 2 points!
Consequentially, in the middle of the quarter, teams faced only the second tie (58:58) in the match.
Whatever did Djordjevic said to his players in the dressing room appears to have worked! His team looked poised to win this match. To substantiate this…
…they took their play to yet another level — or, perhaps, the level expected of them to be at — by outclassing Czechs by 23:8 in the first seven minutes of Q3.
By the end of this segment, Czechs were trailing 15 points (79:64)!
Allowing themselves a breather and feeling visibly more relaxed, team Serbia showed a glimpse of trademark creativity and increased their lead to 18 points in the last quarter.
Ginzburg tried his best to revive the Czech team, with the number of replacements and combinations, but it seemed like they pour all they had in the first halftime! Pressed by the clock, they were forced to shoot quickly and in a hasty manner.
With Serbs using the experience to their advantage, they slowly and surely concluded the game with 90:81 win.
In the end…
Regardless of (also trademark) oscillations in their game, Serbian players performed brilliantly in the third quarter, which was enough to take them one step closer to the much-needed win. In addition, they held their ground when the chips were down and, obviously, received either great pep-talk by Djordjevic in the dressing room or something we might never want to hear (at least, not in public!).
Czech national team can only be proud of themselves! They gave us an outstanding performance and showed how determination and team effort can result in #24 in the world finishing in the 6th overall place at this tournament. In addition, they have probably learned a lot and it is not farfetched to envision them being the tough nut in the future!
We, the spectators, enjoyed in the excellent match that could have, frankly, went both ways at a certain point!
With that, we congratulate to teams, players, coaches and staff on the great performances at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup!
(Although our Serbian members might find it to be just a tad too unnecessary stressful, there is always a new championship on the horizon!)
When it comes to you, LCB’ers, we will see you again tomorrow, when the shining circular objects made out of gold, silver, and bronze are to be shared between the top four teams in this contest!
Until next time…