By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic broke down the strengths of Australia ahead of the Olympic Games quarterfinal game between the two teams and analyzed what his squad must do to advance.
“This is a very serious team, we all know that,” Pesic said per Meridian Sport. “We also know that a very experienced coach manages them, they have continuity because they have been playing together for many years. This is their first and basic characteristic. In this tournament system, each team needs to achieve continuity, which is very difficult. Something always changes there. They have what they have, they know each other well. They have players who are not only in the NBA, but they are players who are important on those teams.”
“In today’s basketball, the most important thing is to play well in defense in transition, to prevent those easy points,” Pesic added. “Their real characteristic is their game in transition. They gave us 80 points in the game in Abu Dhabi, they scored 40 from the transition. Of course, we had just arrived there from the road, we were a little tired, we didn’t even prepare for the opponent, we were more focused on our own game. But, all of us who know the Australian national team, respect them very much. This is a team that knows what it wants, is serious, and there are no tricks with them. It’s pure basketball, clear basketball”
Serbia completed the first stage of the Olympic Games basketball tournament with a 2-1 record in Group C. The Orlovi suffered a rout to the USA in the opener and then went on to beat Puerto Rico and South Sudan.
The latter put up a big fight that Serbia captain Bogdan Bogdanovic described as a “great test” for his team ahead of the quarterfinals. Pesic has kind of the same view.
“Of course, we are better than we were on June 24 when we started. There is no dilemma. This game against South Sudan was absolutely fantastic,” Pesic commented. “It was necessary to withstand the pressure they made. We managed to break them in the middle of the third quarter. It was an extraordinary reaction, we changed the rhythm of the game in attack. We put baskets where we wanted to put them. After all, they scored fewer points in transition. And that makes us happy. It was very difficult to play, they are very fast.”
“The better the team is, the better it is organized, somehow it is easier for us to defend it, unlike South Sudan,” Pesic also said.
Pesic wants to see his players taking care of business on the defensive end and successfuly put into action what they have been working on during practices.
“It’s fun to score a basket in attack, but let’s also enjoy the individual quality in defense. Let’s not allow them those easy baskets. I think we understood what needs to be done here. Ever since we started, we’ve been talking about teams that are much stronger in transition. And we really worked a lot on it. If we did anything, we did transition defense. Some good results were shown there, but every game is something new”.