By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Manila, Philippines –On yesterday’s rest day, the Serb national team changed hotels in Manila and also had their mind on unlucky Borisa Simanic who lost a kidney in the most improbable way and of course, he is out of the tournament.
“It was a hectic day, I was nervous because when I was younger, we usually lost to Lithuania”, admitted Serb star Bogdan Bogdanovic before adding: “Our teammate, Borisa Simanic sent us a text message: “Guys I am good, let’s win tonight” After everything that happened to him, he united us. he is an amazing guy, this is for him”.
That’s why after the final buzzer, the Serbs were celebrating together with their fans, chanting the name of Simanic.
However, they already have to move forward, waiting for their next opponent in the semifinals, either Slovenia or Canada. As Bogdanovic said: “This is really important for athletes and then for our country. You know how we love the game of basketball, we are ready to compete more. That’s how this tournament works. We can celebrate this win. but tomorrow we have to regroup and get ready for our next opponent. That’s what I learned from previous experience. You just have to be prepared. The score says 20 points, but our effort and energy was 300%”.
On a personal note, and after his teammate, Marko Guduric called him a great leader in the mixed zone, Bogdanovic added with a smile: “I am just happy to be in that position, we are all the same in the locker room, I maybe said something to Gudura that he liked. I honestly don’t remember what I said. I play basketball with instinct. Sometimes I shoot too much. I hope I can continue like this. I liked the way I played tonight, but I believe I can play a bit better”.
The explanation of Pesic for not watching the game Lithuania vs. USA
Coach Svetislav Pesic from his side gave credit to Lithuania and explained how unforgiving the World Cup format is: “It’s an important victory, against a great team like Lithuania. We must give them respect, they had a great tournament especially the game against the USA. When I said that we didn’t see that game, I didn’t mean that we didn’t scout them. We were ready to play in the quarterfinals, if you play every two days it’s very difficult. But with the right motivation you can do it, our motto is one for all. You must see how this team plays in defense. If we play like tonight, then that’s a real team. This is the first time since we started this tournament that we have a day off tomorrow and this is important for us”.
Speaking about his bench players who changed the tempo of the game, Pesic added: “The rhythm of the game is very important, you can’t play all the time with fast breaks and it’s not good to play only transition. European basketball is different. This is our game in Serbia, it’s important to know how to change our rhythm. Sometimes we will be successful like tonight, other nights not. Players who came from the bench like Avramovic can do that. They came into the game and brought more energy than the starters and that makes every coach happy”.
“The toughest team won”
For Lithuanian coach Kazys Maksvytis what really hurt his team was the lack of concentration.
“The energy and the concentration, a bigger target on our defense, our offense was bad, so I would change pretty much everything if I could”, he said when asked what he would do differently.
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The win against the USA didn’t have much to do with that according to coach Maksvytis: “That was a different game, they scored a lot of points in transition from our turnovers, which means also a lack of focus. First of all, it was a matter of physicality, they pushed us out of good positions and our bad offense decided the outcome:”.
Tadas Sedekerskis also explained that the issue for Lithuania was not the “hangover” from the big win over the USA: “It was a big win but we came here to win a medal, from day one that was our goal in the training camp. Nobody was waiting for us to play like this, we did and we knew we had to beat Serbia today. You see that the game against the USA is now history. The Serbian team is also a great team, with players like Bogdanovic. Maybe it was easy for fans to forget, but not for us”.