By Josh Cohen
Aug. 15, 2016
Croatia couldn’t have dreamed of a better way to complete preliminary round pool play at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
They rolled past Lithuania, finished in first place in Group B and avoided a quarterfinals matchup with the gold-medal favorites, USA.
Croatia learned it advanced to the knockout phase earlier in the day when Brazil knocked off Nigeria. If it had lost to Lithuania, Croatia would have had to do something that no Olympic team has done since 2004 and that is beat the United States.
Instead, the path to a medal seems far more practical. Croatia will play its rivals, Serbia, for the first time in Olympic history in the next round (Wednesday at 9:15 p.m. ET).
Croatia was scorching hot from 3-point distance on Monday. They shot 58 percent (11-of-19) from beyond the arc. Mario Hezonja drilled two of them – both coming in Croatia’s dominant second quarter (outscored Lithuania 34-20).
Bojan Bogdanovic continued his superb play at the Olympics with 22 points. Krunoslav Simon tallied 19 points and 10 rebounds and Dario Saric scored 18. Hezonja had six points and four rebounds.
Croatia did a tremendous job defending the paint. Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis combined to shoot 7-of-20 from the field. Mantas Kalnietis led Lithuania with 26 points.
As unpredictable as they were in the five pool play games (impressive wins over Spain, Brazil and Lithuania and letdowns against Argentina and Nigeria), there may not be a more confident team in this tournament right now than Croatia.
Croatia had to win its Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Italy over a month ago just to secure a spot in Rio. And regardless of how the rest of the tournament goes, Croatia’s youth and talent is certainly not going unnoticed. Many believe this is a team that will compete for medals in the Olympics, FIBA World Cup and other international events for the next decade.
Croatia has reached the quarterfinals in each of the four Olympics it has participated in. It won the silver medal in 1992 in Barcelona and lost in the quarterfinals in 1996 in Atlanta and 2008 in Beijing.