If not for Croatia's Bojan Bogdanovic and Dario Saric, Brazil would be Thursday's feel-good Olympics basketball story—a 2-1 darling working off consecutive upsets with a clear path out of the preliminary round.
Alas, Bogdanovic and Saric brought Brazil's underdog run to a screeching, and potentially permanent, halt during Croatia's 80-76 win in Rio on Thursday. The duo combined for 48 points on 15-of-27 shooting, including a 6-of-11 showing from deep, at times carrying Croatia to the brink of a runaway victory.
Bogdanovic absolutely exploded, tallying an Olympics-high 33 points to go along with six rebounds and three assists. Croatia was content to stick him in weak-side isolations and get out of the way—and he delivered, just like he has for his entire stay in Rio, per Hoop Magazine's Josh Eberley:
Saric finished with a balanced 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Though he was sloppy with the ball (six turnovers), particularly in the second half, he came up big down the stretch.
On one sequence in the fourth quarter, he stuffed a strea ...
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Article written by Dan Favale
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