Jokic, Serbia ousted in quarters by Argentina

DONGGUAN, CHINA» Now Nikola Jokic can enjoy the rest of his summer vacation.

The Nuggets’ all-star center scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but that effort wasn’t enough as Serbia lost 97-87 to Argentina on Tuesday night in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Luis Scola scored 20 points, Facundo Campazzo finished with 18 points and 12 assists for Argentina (6-0), which plays next in Friday’s semifinals at Beijing, against the winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinal in Dongguan between the U.S. (5-0) and France (4-1).

“It means a lot,” Scola said.

Serbia was considered the pre-tournament favorite by many, and came in expecting to win gold after losing title games to the U.S. at the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Argentina had other plans and Scola made a very loud statement after the game — this outcome, he insisted, was no fluke.

“It just bothers me that people keep talking about miracle, keep talking about surprise, keep talking about nobody believing,” Scola said. “I’ll tell you, there were 22 people that believed for the last two months that we were going to be here. That’s all we need, just 22. We’ve got them and this is far from a miracle.” Patricio Garino added 15 for Argentina. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 21 points for Serbia (4-2), which got 18 points from Nemanja Bjelica. Vasilije Micic played 18 minutes for Serbia, after the death of his mother earlier this week.

“We put a lot of work in this summer,” Bjelica said. “It’s hard. But it’s basketball. There are more important things.”

“Campazzo absolutely dominated the game,” Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic said of Argentina’s 5-foot-10 point guard, who dazzled throughout. “Absolutely dominated the game. This is his victory.” Scola said it was a total team effort. “I think we played a very good basketball game,” Scola said. “We’re a good team. We’ve played a great tournament and we deserved to win.”