Adrian Fedkiw
What stood out in a near fourth quarter comeback had nothing to do with basketball.
Dario Saric pumped his fists in celebration after finding open teammates for layups, smacked the floor despite being outmatched when having to defend a quick and shifty guard along the perimeter and roared when Croatia began to claw back into the game.
He has an edge and competitive fire that is going to translate well to the NBA level.
Saric netted 11 of his 19 points in the final frame to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists, but Argentina held on for a 90-82 win over Croatia in Group B play on Tuesday night.
After three quarters, Saric appeared to be on his way to a second underwhelming performance. Croatia trailed by as many as 20 points in the third before Saric helped it chip away in the fourth. Croatia sliced the lead to as little as four and Krunoslav Simon had a chance to whittle the deficit to a point, but missed a 3-pointer with over a minute to play. Croatia was then called for a pair of technical fouls and the comeback was thwarted.
Saric finished 7-of-16 from the floor and turned the ball over just once after posting just five points on 1-of-7 efficiency during Croatia’s upset win over Spain Sunday night. Saric, of course, blocked Pau Gasol at the buzzer to help Hrvatska pull off the stunner.
Let’s take a look at some clips.
I haven’t shown enough Saric rebounding clips of the games I’ve covered, so here’s his offensive board and putback to get Croatia within four with just over a minute to go.
Saric is very effective moving without the basketball, showcasing that here with a nice cut down the lane before finishing at the basket with a layup.
Saric’s face-up game is a lot better than what he can do in the post. He uses a stutter-step move to create space against Scola before rising for the right elbow jumper.
Simon dives on the loose ball for the steal and Saric immediately cuts to the basket and converts the layup.
Now onto the dimes and there were quite a few gems.
Like Ben Simmons, Saric has the ability to grab the defensive rebound and go, he’s just not as explosive. I’ve made this point before. Check out the quick left-handed post feed from the top of the key, pretty.
We see Saric’s vision here, threading the needle to a right wing cutting Mario Hezonja from the top of the key, but Hezonja couldn’t hang on to the pass.
And another good post entry feed
Here’s some stellar post passing from Saric, recognizing the help defender along the left block and hitting a cutting Simon for the layup.
Here’s more of Saric’s vision on display, hitting a left wing cutting Bojan Bogdanovic with a great pass for the layup. Perfect trajectory and pace on the dish.
Here’s Saric with a kickout pass to Hezonja, who drains the open right corner triple.
I don’t think Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown will have Saric in the post as much as Croatia does, but I’ve referenced his weaknesses down low before. He turns the ball over a lot and gets outmuscled. He fails to gain a lot of separation here and his hook shot in the paint clanks off the rim.
Due to Saric’s high basketball IQ and recognition skills, he’s a lot better as a help defender than having to guard somebody one on one in an isolation type of situation. That occurred here on his help to steal a pass intended for Scola.
Saric takes good jump shots most of the time. This is the only poor one I’ve seen in the two games during Olympic play. He took a step-back left wing jumper with Scola all over him and it was well off the mark.
With Croatia switching defensively, Argentina took advantage of Saric’s inability to guard the perimeter several times with the elusive Facundo Campazzo. Saric got his ankles broken here.
And again.
I referenced in the game against Spain about Saric’s struggles to finish at the rim, we see that again here. After snatching the offensive rebound, he drove the right baseline and got stuck at the summit against Roberto Acuna.
And he gets tied up on the left wing drive on this instance.
Croatia plays next against host country Brazil on Thursday.