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Serbia lost their first point guard before the match against France

The game is not decisive, both teams are in the quarter-finals and the only question is from which position they will progress

Both Serbia and France are in the quarter-finals, Serbia through Ukraine's defeat and some other results, and France through their win against Latvia. Serbia can be first or third. They will be first if they win, regardless of other games played before this one, Latvia-Belgium and Lithuania-Ukraine. Seeing how the things are rather crowded in group two, there is no space for calculations and "picking" who you want to get in the quarter-finals.

France can top this group only if they win and Lithuania is beaten by Ukraine. Which is not very realistic, although this Eurobasket has had its "unreal" results. One such results was Serbia's defeat to Ukraine, but Serbia carefully chose which games to win. They had 3-2 in round 1 and they still carried 2-0 over. Now they lost to Ukraine and are still bound to be in the quarter-finals. Let's just say that Greece, a better team than Serbia, beat Spain and still has minimal chances to go into final 8.

Apart from losing points against Ukraine, Serbia lost a much more important thing - their first point-guard Stefan Markovic. He injured his back when he crashed into Lypovy. He got back into the game but he wasn't himself. The MR scan brought bad news and he surely won't play today, and might not even be in the quarter-finals

- Our leader, the source of our aggressive play and our creation, got a bad hit and had an awkward fall and he got injured again. He will certainly not play against France and his recovery depends on our physicians - said Serbian coach Dusan Ivkovic.

So far, Markovic was substituted by Micis as point-guard, but...

- He's shown he's talented but not aggressive, powerful and or experienced enough for this tournament.

It is hard to expect Ivkovic to start with Micic as point guard, it would be much realistic to put Nemanja Nedovic on this position, a man who's played the few last games without the ball, and this isn't his style and he's not dangerous for the opponent that way. Bogdanovic has imposed himself as the first shooting guard so we might see a Serbia with Nedovic as point guard and Bogdanovic as shooting guard, Kalinic as forward, Bjelica as power forward  and Krstic as center. This game does not mean a lot to Serbia which can be seen from Ivkovic's statements.

- It is very important, not just for this team, but for Serbian basketball and our country to get back to reality. We can be third or first. What does this mean? It means that we have three games after this one with France and we must win at least one and get a historic achievement for Serbian basketball to participate in World Championship with a much stronger squad and without so many injuries.

Ivkovic said it all. Spain can only crash out if they lose to Italy, which means that first 7 here will got to World Championship in Spain 2015. Seeing how either Latvia or Ukraine will go into quarter-finals, and of course Italy, Serbia see their chance to win here. Of course, Ivkovic is using reverse psychology, trying to reduce the pressure on  his team. He won't let anything to chance regarding quarter-finals, he is too good of a coach to not see at least the smallest of chances, against anyone. Today's game is all that matters in this story. 

- Something happened to me against Ukraine that hasn't happened in a while. It is usually the players from the bench that have better efficiency that the starters. This time it wasn't so. There was a lapse in judgement before the game, most of all individual, among the players and among us. We have to fix this detail - Ivkovic analyzed in his style without naming any names, even though it was clear that Nedovic was one of those who flopped, along with Katic and Andjsic, and Micic in defense as Jeter got the best of him.

Their captain Nenad Krstic missed their last night's training session due to ankle injury, but the media say he is certain to play.

Serbia and France played a tournament in France during the preparations. Serbia was up by 7 points with 2 minutes to go only for Parker to take things into over-time and later victory. This was a 130-points game.

The Frenche enter this match knowing they can be first, second or third. But it will depend on the games earlier in the day. They will need Lithuania to lose against Ukraine to be first, apart from their own victory.

- They are all dangerous, they have Krstic in the paint, and solid Bjelica and Markovic next to him. They are a big team. As far as we go, we are having a good tournament, we are focused on the following game and then we have the quarter-finals ahead of us - said Florant Pietrus.

- They are a great team, they had a great first phase, and some solid games. We played against them in the preparations and it was a good game - said captain Boris Diaw.

- We have all we need to get the gold. We aim to get as far as possible and this game will help us see how far we can go.

They beat Latvia through good offensive game, and it was 31-15 for them already after first quarter and neither team showed any interest in defending after that. Batum finally had a great game with 19 pointsr (17/10), 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Ajinca dominated the paint (25 points) and Parker got 23 points (9/17).

- We played a good game, we defended well, we had the first half and you don't score 100 every day - said Tony Parker fr Sport24.fr.

- We won't go into calculations against Serbia, if we are second we won't played the quarter-finals before Thursday. We play to win. We have to get better with each game, it is important to win against Serbia. 

Parker said their defense wasn't good but they were efficient in offense, which was lacking against Lithuania, 'we couldn't get into the groove' even though their defense was good then.

- The most important thing is to go through and be the best in the quarter-finals. I don't want a 2009 re-run in which we lose one game and don't get the medal. 

Finally, Parker analyzed their current opponent....

- They're a good team, they have good players and a very good coach. They gave us hell in Antibes, we had to beat them in over-time. Krstic always dominates the paint and Bjelica is also very good. They are always dangerous. They lost to Ukraine  and we now Ukraine are good. I expect another great game.

Serbia is playing without their lead play Stefan Markovic today. Given that the coach Ivkovic was very unhappy with Micic and his play against the Ukraine, today I expect to see Nedovic as the lead play, and I expect to see many more balls in his hands. He's a type of the player who can't play without the ball for too long, and when he get a ball, he's very dangerous, especially in the open court and in transition. The French haven't impressed in defense during the championship and Parker never had a reputation of a top defensive player. But this is not the reason for this tip. The key factor is that Markovic will be absent and I expect Nedovic to get more play time.

Krstic has had 16.3 points per game on this tournament and has gone over four times in six games that he played (he didn't play against Montenegro). However. he scored exactly 17 points in his last two games. He miss the training session yesterday and even though they media report that he is bound to play, he shouldn't get too much playing time. This is his last chance to rest and he will probably not spend more than 25 minutes on the court. Serbia are already in the quarter-finals and the only thing left to be answered is their final place. Considering the complex situation in group two, and the fact that even Spain can come out second, the question is whether first place is actually an advantage. The match from the preparations in which Krstic got only 10 points against France speaks in favor of this bet.