By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Team USA is expected to steamroll over its competition on its way to Olympic gold, so if basketball fans are looking for some competitive game action, they have to look elsewhere. Fortunately for Sixers fans, the team just so happens to have two players representing their countries. Croatia’s Dario Saric and Spain’s Sergio Rodriguez faced off in their Rio opener Sunday afternoon, undoubtedly providing a huge bump in ratings in the tri-state area.
Many fans knew the name, and maybe even watched the YouTube highlights, but these Olympics provided a lot of people the first opportunity to watch Dario Saric live in game action. By the end of 40 minutes, it’s safe to say the people of Philadelphia came away with some warm and fuzzy feelings for the soon-to-be rookie forward.
After banging knees and literally limping off the court moments before, Saric didn’t miss any time and hit one of two free throws to put Croatia up by two in the closing seconds. That sequence set the stage for this bit of heroics:
The Homie says gimme that W. https://t.co/SbmwAbhFzg
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) August 8, 2016
That’s Dario Saric blocking Pau Gasol, 6-time All-Star and NBA champion, who also scored a game-high 26 points on 11-17 shooting to become the top European scorer in Olympic basketball history. But I bet he woke up this morning really wishing he had scored 28.
Late-game heroics aside, Saric shot just 1-7 from the floor, including 0-4 from three and 3-6 from the foul line. Saric made a little of strides improving his shot over the last year, but it’s clearly still a work in progress. Still, he did tie a team-high with 7 rebounds and record a team-high 5 assists. He was even played some time at center, which is not what I think people meant when they said he’d be out of position at small forward, but he fought the good fight.
His court vision is just incredible for a guy his size though. Check out some of these passes:
Dario's making me experience confusing feelings https://t.co/AuGu4Pzb2Z
— max (@MaxOnTwitter) August 7, 2016
TOUCHDOWN DARIO https://t.co/GaqKxvuPme
— max (@MaxOnTwitter) August 7, 2016
Saric and Simmons are going to do make sweet music together come this fall.
There was another soon-to-be Sixer on the court, and Sergio Rodriguez did not disappoint. Although he went 3-11 from the floor (the Sixers are not going to solve their shooting woes next season), Rodriguez did drop a game-high 7 assists. The 30-year-old displayed a comfort playing both on or off the ball, a flexibility that will work well sharing the court with Ben Simmons.
He also had some highlight-worthy dimes. The Sixers are just going to need some guys to finish shots after all these gorgeous passes come their way next season.
That's Sergio's strength, pick-and-roll offense. Sweet pass to Pau here: https://t.co/MgMH75dGzk
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) August 7, 2016
SERGI👁 https://t.co/ko4YsZHjxr
— max (@MaxOnTwitter) August 7, 2016
All in all, it was an incredibly fun and entertaining contest between two future Sixers. Hopefully, we’ll be able to catch a rematch when these two teams advance out of the group stage. Both countries are back in action Tuesday.
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