After getting walloped by Team USA in its Paris Olympics opener, the Serbian men’s basketball team had a lot of work to do against Puerto Rico on Wednesday. With a 107-66 blowout victory, the Serbians, led by superstar Nikola Jokic, passed their test with flying colors, flipping their -26 point differential coming in to a solid +15 margin.
Jokic, in particular, and unsurprisingly, was in his bag.
The three-time NBA MVP with the Denver Nuggets dropped an effortless 14 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists while missing just two shots. With no real challenge from the Puerto Rican front line, Jokic was in complete control, even throwing casual “touchdown passes” to teammates down the court without a second thought:
Nikola Jokic ➡️ Nikola Jovic
TOUCHDOWN 🙌pic.twitter.com/NXDIYIYZHP
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 31, 2024
Ironically, the same person who caught this above pass — Miami Heat power forward Nikola Jovic — is also who cost Jokic a chance at all-time Olympics history in Serbia’s dominant win.
That’s because with the Serbians cruising, it had no incentive to play Jokic in the fourth quarter. They don’t want to tire him out in an easy win when there will likely be more competitive games in these Olympics in the near future. But before being benched for rest at the end of the third quarter, Jokic still found Jovic for an easy layup that would’ve given the center only the fourth triple-double in the history of the men’s Olympics.
And … Jovic smoked it, forcing Jokic to take the offensive rebound and score himself. Jokic would not reenter the game later, finishing with just nine assists while ending his chances of being etched into the lore of international basketball. Oof.
For reference, the three triple-doubles in men’s Olympics history came from:
- Sasha Belov for the Soviet Union against Canada during Montreal 1976
- LeBron James for the USA against Australia in London 2012
- Luka Doncic for Slovenia against France in Tokyo 2021
If there’s any consolation for Jokic, it that he probably doesn’t care he missed out on this individual feat. He wants Serbia to win first and foremost, to get a medal in these Olympics, because he’s a team guy first and foremost.
Here was teammate Bogdan Bogdanovic’s take on Jokic missing out, per FIBA:
“We heard that he’s on 9 assists, somebody shouted it from the stands,” Bogdanovic said. “But trust me, he doesn’t really care about this stuff.”
That’s all well and good, but it still would’ve been really cool for Jokic to etch his name into the record books for Serbia with an Olympics triple-double. That’s not a chance you get every day. This is only Jokic’s second-ever Olympics playing for his home country, after all.
At least the big man is likely to get a few more opportunities to do so in Paris.
