By Aris Barkas / info@eurohoops.net
LILLE, France – Many fans wanted to see Nikola Jokic posting a triple-double in Serbia’s win over Puerto Rico. The one who apparently didn’t care at all about that was Jokic himself, according to national team captain Bogdan Bogdanovic.
“We heard from some fan who was yelling ‘put Nikola back’ but I think he gets bored by hearing this from outside for stats,” Bogdanovic said. Jokic finished with 14 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists while not playing at all in the fourth period. “Because he is dominant and I can tell you he is not playing for stats”
“I don’t think Nikola cared about that,” Serbia center Nikola Milutinov had also mentioned.
Jokic is back with the Serbian national team after skipping the 2023 FIBA World Cup. While his huge boost is much welcome, Bogdanovic believes that it’s all about how the group performs as a whole.
“With him, it’s even easier,” Bogdanovic said. “But we play team style, you know, and it never mattered who is playing great. There are some games, I’ve been part of this team for more than ten years, so I’ve seen a lot, and it was always one and two guys, every game was one and another guy. You have a couple of leaders, obviously it’s a couple of older guys with experience, but everybody is very well-trained and motivated and they can step up every other game. I think we are talented and we are a great group of guys.”
Bogdanovic also accepts the responsibility of being one of the leaders.
“Yeah, obviously that comes with years and experience,” the Atlanta Hawks guard said. “It’s a huge responsibility but that’s what you work for for all these years you can’t run away from it.
The Serbian team put on a strong reaction against Puerto Rico after suffering a blowout loss to the USA in the opener. Bogdanovic was pleased with both the result and the effort by the “Orlovi.”
“It’s always great when you win, you know, winning, solving a lot of problems,” Bogdanovic said. “So I’m just happy that we won. We came with better energy today, we know what was on the line today, so I’m just happy with the effort and energy we put today.”
“We were beat up. We definitely played with our confidence a little bit after the game,” Bogdanovic mentioned on the defeat to USA. “but I think after we watched the tape you could see that we could play better, especially at some crucial moments at the end of the first quarter, the end of the second quarter, and the end of the quarter is at the beginning of third. We had a couple of letdowns against that team that you can’t have. And then KD coming up and shooting 100 percent. So I think we can do a better job on him.”
Photo: FIBA Basketball