Bogdan Bogdanovic felt unselfish when Serbia pulled off a 115-83 thrashing of South Sudan.
The 6’5” shooting guard of the Atlanta Hawks passed the pass ball around so much that his young teammate Nikola Jovic of the Miami Heat looked good as the Serbians went on to sweep Group B of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 on Wednesday evening at the Araneta Coliseum.
“He’s a great kid. He’s always improving. We need him. We need him to be better than me every single game, because we want to win more games,” said the 31-year-old Bogdanovic, deflecting credit from himself, after he finished above his averages with his 23 points, two rebounds and nine assists.
He instead pointed to the 20-year-old Jovic, who had 25 points (on a perfect 9-of-9 shooting that included 5 treys), two rebounds and three assists, earning him the TCL Player of the Game award.
This was Jovic’s highest output so far, after he unloaded 17 points, had three rebounds, and four assists in their 94-77 demolition of Puerto Rico.
The performance caught the eye of his Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
“Everything we were doing with our program from the conditioning to the weight-room work to the rehab work to the basketball skills development was to prepare him for summer league and then potentially have an opportunity to play for his national team,” said Spoelstra in a statement.
Another teammate also did well off Bogdanovic’s leadership on the floor–Nikola Milutinov, who turned in a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, to go with 3 assists.
“I’m just happy and proud that we won and we showed the character at the end. For us, we are happy with the result right now but the tournament is just starting for us,” added Bogdanovic.
With their sweep, Serbia is now in the second round and is set to clash with Dominican Republic and Italy.
The Italian Azzuris will be the Serbs’ first opponent on Friday at 4 p.m., before they go up against the Dominicans on Sunday at 8 p.m.
“It’s important to win every game. But it’s also important to use these games to improve our individual and team form. We had very good concentration on both sides of the court. We are all happy.” said Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic.