Nikola Jokic’s summer dominance continued on Saturday in Team Serbia’s tune-up game for EuroBasket where he put up 23 points, 19 rebounds, and 4 assists en route to victory over Greece. Though an exhibition, these games are vital in the short build up period before the tournament and it’s notable that the favored Serbians are now 4-0.
It’s also notable that this was supposed to be a matchup of the world’s two greatest players in Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Greek Freak sat this one out while his home country was defeated, 76-66 in Limassol, Cyprus.
Serbia is hoping to bring home a gold medal, while Greece will have their work cut out for them if they hope to medal in the competition. Still, having a player like Giannis should mean they are able to stay competitive against any team they face, and should always, at least, give them a puncher’s chance.
The fact that they were able to hang pretty tight with a Serbian team that trotted out all three of their current NBA players in Jokic, Nikola Jovic, and Bogdan Bogdanovic should be promising and give them reason for optimism for group play, once Giannis is back in action.
Jokic can send message to NBA at EuroBasket
In many ways, Jokic sent a message to the world last summer at the Olympics by how competitive Serbia was and how close they came to upsetting the Americans. But his NBA team wasn’t up to snuff once the season started.
This season, the Nuggets are stacked and chomping at the bit after back-to-back disappointing round two playoff exits. There have been a lot of changes in Denver this offseason and it feels like the energy has shifted and the team is ready to go out and prove themselves.
There would be no better way to kick that off than by Jokic leading Serbia to a gold medal and showcasing his dominance over all of Europe. Many of the NBA’s best players obviously won’t be partaking in EuroBasket, but make no mistake, the whole world will be watching.
Nuggets fans fully understand what the team has done this offseason and how they’ve transformed into a juggernaut, but the rest of the league is sleeping. If Jokic and Serbia steamroll the competition in EuroBasket, then he comes to Denver and the Nuggets come out of the gates like a ball of fire, look out.
The world may not be ready for what Nikola Jokic is about to unleash, and it’s all starting right now overseas.