Nikola Jokic breaks Australia hearts to lead Serbia into basketball semifinals at Paris 2024 Olympics 

After falling behind by 24 points in the first and yielding 14 consecutive points to the ageless Patty Mills, Serbia's men's basketball team looked like they wanted to be anywhere besides Bercy Arena on Tuesday, 6 August, at the Paris 2024 Olympics. They looked lethargic and a step slow and were in risk of losing all hopes for a semifinal appearance.

Yet, the Europeans began to chip away, increasing their defensive intensity and ball pressure, causing turnovers, turning those into easy baskets and they outscored Australia by 30 points in a stretch to take the lead.

Finally, in overtime, with Australia up 3 points, superstar Nikola Jokic responded with his best basketball of the day, getting a key steal on Mills and then adding the go-ahead and insurance buckets to seal a 95-90 win. Jokic finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists and four steals in a masterpiece performance.

Now, Jokic has been a man of mystery during this Olympic tournament. He has not spoken with the media at all and Tuesday was no different.

“He’s great, but he only likes to talk to me, you know that,” Serbian guard Bogdan Bogdanovic joked of Jokic. “In the NBA, if he doesn’t talk to media, he’ll get fined. But here (in the Olympics), there are no fines. So he says, ‘I don’t need to.’ No offense to you guys.”

Serbia advances to meet the Team USA versus Brazil winner. USA beat Serbia 110-84 in Group C play. Bogdanovic said Serbia will have to be much better offensively to compete with the Americans in a potential rematch.

Meanwhile, Australia’s quest for a second consecutive medal was squelched, thanks to 20 turnovers, including seven from Josh Giddey, who threw away an inbounds pass with Serbia up three points and 23 seconds left in overtime. Mills, who carried Australia in the first half, finished with 26 points and the game-tying bucket in regulation.

“This is why you play international basketball,” Mills said. “It’s a different sport than any other league around the world. It brings the best out of anyone. We threw everything we could at them. We had nothing in the tank. Full credit to Serbia. They kept us out of our comfort zone. In international basketball, once you lose that momentum, it’s hard to get it back.”

On the final basket of regulation, Mills said: “You live for those moments as a little kid in the backyard underneath the clothesline in Australia. You imagine yourself as a kid in those moments, being able to hit a shot in the Olympic Games, force it into overtime. We gave ourselves a chance but it wasn’t our day.”

Gary Washburn is an Olympic Channel correspondent and National NBA Writer for the Boston Globe.