Both Dario Saric and Sergio Rodriguez continued Olympic play on Tuesday in the preliminary round in Rio. While both of their teams ended up losing, the two new Sixers looked strong and neither team went down without a fight.
Dario Saric and Croatia hung around fought back from some big deficits and made things close, but the long-range shooting from Argentina proved to be the difference when the final buzzer sounded. After scoring just four points in the first half, Saric erupted in the fourth quarter to keep his country in the game, scoring 11 of his 19 points, three of his 10 rebounds and two of his seven assists in the final stanza. Acquired by the Sixers on draft night in 2014, Saric played a team-high 35 minutes while shooting 7-for-16 from the floor to earn a double-double.
Meanwhile Rodriguez and No. 2 ranked Spain suffered their second straight defeat, this time at the hands of Brazil by a score of 66-65. Having won silver medals in the last two Olympics, Spain will have to turn things around quickly if they plan to put themselves in the medal picture at all. They have three more games to do so before the 12-team field is cut down to eight. Rodriguez put together his second straight 10 point effort on Tuesday, shooting 3-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. He also added five assists and two rebounds.
Up next on Thursday, Croatia will match up against Brazil at 1:15 p.m. while Spain will play Nigeria later on in the day in a battle of 0-2 teams to start Olympic play.
