Serbia and Micić Cruise to Olympic Bronze Medal Against Germany

After jumping out to an early lead, Serbia fended off all comeback attempts.

Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

Both teams came fresh off of heartbreaking semi-final defeats on Thursday. Serbia lost an all-time classic late against Team USA while Germany was stifled by France's defense en route to this third-place game. Despite having the arguably worse loss morale-wise, Serbia came out of the gates looking more focused.

Dennis Schröder and Franz Wagner, usually the leaders of the German squad, displayed an uncharacteristic amount of carelessness on both ends of the floor. Serbia happily exploited those lapses, first through Nikola Jokić and later on through Vasilije Micić. The Hornets guard contributed 8 points in the first quarter, resulting in a 30-21 lead.

Día 1 de Medallas 🥇🧑‍💻🏀

🇷🇸 Para comenzar los videos de hoy, no podía faltar una acción de paso cero, combinada con finta de pase por parte de Micic. pic.twitter.com/ANlKvzG78l

— Coach Me Basketball (@CoachMeBasket) August 10, 2024

In the second quarter, the German's offensive worries continued, and the shot selection raised numerous question marks. As players like Moritz Wagner attempted and missed contested three-pointers, Serbia stayed in control for most parts and took a 46-38 advantage into halftime.

Not much changed after the break. Germany could not get good shots and the few they created often did not result in makes. Meanwhile, Serbia tightened their grip, pushed the tempo a bit more than in the first half, and produced a 10-0 run in the middle of the third. With the game seemingly out of hand, some threes started falling for Wagner and Co., which cut the lead down to 72-63.

It had been a long Olympic tournament for the two ball clubs, and exhaustion seemed to kick in during the final minutes of the game. Luckily Bogdan Bogdanović had sat out large parts of the contest due to foul trouble and was now able to provide Serbia with the spark, that was needed to secure the win. Vasilije Micić also added some points to his tally, and if all else failed Nikola Jokić was able to punish a mismatch on the inside.

Germany did simply not have the personnel to match up with the three-time MVP, and on this occasion lacked the necessary focus to keep up with his running mates. Therefore, the final game with some Hornets representation in these Olympics ended in a 93-83 win for Serbia.

Player Grade for Vasilije Micić: B+

19 pts (5/10 FG, 2/6 3pt, 7/8 FT) | 2rb | 2as

This was another encouraging performance for all Hornets fans. Micić had started the Olympics with a rushed and overall worrying performance against Team USA. As the tournament went on, he found his rhythm a bit more in each game, resulting in this all-around scoring display. A few nice drives to the rim, two threes, and a great stroke from the charity stripe led to a tournament-high in points for Micić and added another piece of silverware to his collection.