Boban Marjanovic wasn’t alone in making life difficult for Gilas Pilipinas while it threatened to score a massive upset over Serbia in their 2021 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament encounter in Belgrade, Thursday morning.
There was also Milos Teodosic.
Sure, it was the 7-foot-4 behemoth who took over down the stretch, scoring eight of the home team’s last 10 points. But the majority of those wouldn’t be possible without timely assists by the future Hall of Famer.
Six of Marjanovic’s points in crunch time were all thanks to Teodosic’s dimes. That included the one that led to a dunk with 3:32 remaining in the game, giving Serbia the lead for good, 75-74, on their way to the 83-76 squeaker.
The 6-foot-5 guard collected a total of six assists in a performance that also saw him register 13 points on three triples and four rebounds. This, after having just six markers in their 94-76 conquest of the Dominican Republic the night prior.
“I think Milos Teodosic presents a lot of problems. His ball screen play was tough for us to handle,” shared Gilas head coach Tab Baldwin moments after the match at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.
“We changed our defense and we started showing up on the screen, trying to take the ball out of his hands, and that was effective to some degree,” he added, as Teodosic committed four turnovers.
“But just sort of his ability to get the ball to the right people in the right occasions, with Boban scoring big and scoring late, and Milos controlling the offensive game. Our defense was always under pressure by those guys.”
Teodosic has proven time and again why he remains an important figure for Serbia even at age 34. And he is also a player whom Baldwin wants his players — especially the guards — to learn from, given his pedigree.
For starters, he is a former EuroLeague Most Valuable Player and twice a EuroCup MVP. The 2010 FIBA Europe Player of the Year was also part of the Serbian teams that won silver in the 2016 Olympics and 2014 World Cup.
“When you play against a player like Teodosic, you both want to compete. You’re desperate to test your skills against a player who’s played at a level that Milos has,” Baldwin said in a pre-OQT virtual presser earlier this week.
And Gilas and Co. definitely learned much from Teodosic and the Eagles.
“I think offensively, our cohesion isn’t near where we want it to be. We haven’t played a team of that caliber and that intelligence that Serbia plays the game with,” offered the American-Kiwi bench tactician.
“We were scrambling a lot, but I don’t think you want to criticize your team for scrambling. But you also don’t want that to be the character of your team offensively. You want to have a bit more cohesion. So a lot of work to do,” he furthered.
“We need to put this game behind us and get ready for Dominican now.”
