John took his gun and fired a volley, but Belgrade Castle held out! Serbia celebrated a 100-94 (retired 87-87) overtime gold win, improved their record to 2-3 and pulled back from the quicksand that threatened to keep them out of the World Cup finals.

Despite the defeat, the White-Blues keep a positive sign (3:2) and feel relatively safe as long as they are cautious with Belgium and Latvia.

The two teams were forced to play each other early on when Kostas Antetokounmpo and Misic left with injuries and did not return. With Papayannis in Athens and Kostas being knocked out, there was no clear decision to play under the basket, and Itoudis worked on various tricks to stop Jokic and Miludinov from having a… party.

Unstoppable Giannis with 40 points in a great match – Challenging Kostas Antetokounmpo and Misic who are injured.

Greece survived without a tower and remained competitive to the end in a match where the difference swelled and deflated like a rubber band. Our national team came back twice from -9 to take the lead until the Serbs 11-2 sent them to +7 at half time.

Good defense allowed the White-Blues to stay in the game, although in the second half the difference reached double digits several times. With the Greek freak raging, our team had a very bad formation and unnoticed shots for a long time, but from there they found a solution at the end, when with three consecutive three-pointers (the last, stunning Dorsey with 11″ left) sent the game into overtime. There, he couldn’t take it anymore when the referee shoved him… a small hand. Quarters: 31-25, 51-44, 70-63, 87-87 (square), 100-94.

SERBIA: Gudurić 5 (1), Jaramaz 15 (3/4 doubles, 3/4 trebles), Jokic 29 (9/13 doubles, 2/3 trebles, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 fouls), Kalinic 6, Lucic 14 (2), Davindovac, Dobrich 1, Jagodic-Kurica, Marinkovic 9 (1), Misic 9 (2), Milutinov 12.

GREECE: Giannis Antetokounmpo 40 (12/18 doubles, 2/7 triples, 10/14 shots, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 errors, 2 steals), Kalatis 5 (8 assists), Dorsi 16, Larentsakis, Papanikolaou 8 ( 2 ), Agravanis 5 (1), Kostas Antetokounmpo 6, Thanasis Antetokounmpo 12, Kaselakis, Luntsis, Sloukas 2 (6 assists).