Dario Watch: Finland eliminates Croatia regardless of Saric’s greatest sport of match

Like I discussed within the quasi-preview of this match on the backside of the Ukraine recap, Phoenix Suns ahead Dario Saric and Croatia had powerful sledding forward of them in sport one of many knockout stage towards Finland.

Newly-traded Utah Jazz ahead Lauri Markkanen was a star for Finland within the group stage, averaging almost 25 factors per sport on spectacular effectivity.

And similar to I believed they could, Croatia’s arms have been full nearly instantly. After they scored the sport’s first 4 factors, Finland reeled off a 13-2 run, capped off by this coast-to-coast dunk by Markkanen:

Saric then took benefit of a selection out Finnish protection, attempting to complete on the rim and drawing a foul after catching it across the free throw line — an occasion the place he’ll normally cross out to the nook or wing:

Shortly after, he sealed off a defender to open up the dunker’s spot for himself, bought an entry cross from Karlo Matkovic, and dealt with the remaining:

Utah Jazz wing Bojan Bogdanovic bought in on the scoring within the first quarter as nicely with this prayer late within the shot clock from nicely past the arc:

With Markkanen off the ground for lots of the again half of the primary, Croatia eked out a fast little 11-2 run to finish the quarter up 21-20.

With each taking part in the same-ish place, Saric and Markkanen discovered themselves matched up fairly a number of occasions. On this specific occasion halfway by means of the second, Saric will get the very best of the duel combining each disruptive arms and fast toes:

Although instantly after, Markkanen takes benefit of the additional possession, chopping down the center of the lane for a dunk:

Finland led 45-43 on the half.

Saric bought his first spotlight of the sport early within the third when he discovered Bogdanovic from the highest of the important thing for a simple bucket:

And paired with Summer season Suns alum Jaleen Smith for one more clean help, this time kicking from inside out to a 3:

Forwards and backwards the 2 nations went within the third with neither gaining a lot of an higher hand to talk of. A lot so actually that the quarter resulted in a 65-65 tie with each groups combating for the suitable to maneuver on to the quarterfinals.

Saric discovered Smith a second time early within the fourth, this time from the wing to the nook:

Issues began to collapse for Croatia down the stretch, not helped by Saric’s turnover when attempting to battle within the paint for an excellent shot, which was instantly adopted by a 3 by Finnish sharpshooter Sasu Salin to increase the result in 85-77:

Finland would draw back from there to win 94-86.

Notable statlines:

Croatia:

• D. Saric: 12 pts (3-6 2P, 1-3 3P, 3-4 FT), 9 rebs, 6 asts in 32 min
• B. Bogdanovic: 23 pts (6-9 2P, 1-5 3P, 8-9 FT), 5 rebs, 1 ast in 36 min
• J. Smith: 17 pts (2-2 2P, 3-6 3P, 4-4 FT), 3 rebs, 4 asts, 1 stl in 34 min

Finland:

• L. Markkanen: 43 pts (17-23 2P, 2-6 3P, 3-4 FT), 9 rebs, 3 asts, 3 stls in 32 min
• S. Salin: 17 pts (1-1 2P, 5-10 3P), 5 rebs, 3 asts, 1 stl in 27 min
• E. Valtonen: 0 pts (0-2 2P, 0-1 3P), 2 rebs, 1 stl in 19 min

Up subsequent:

Finland marches onto the qualifiers and can play Spain on Tue. Sep. 13 at 8:15 a.m. AZ time on ESPN+. I’ll be retaining an eye fixed as I’m immediately enthralled with the idea of Markkanen being traded to the Suns.

Except a Markkanen commerce piece comes up, the one different FIBA content material you may count on from me will come this week, recapping new Suns guard Josh Okogie’s three video games with Nigeria for the World Cup Qualifiers, and I’ll delve into Ish Wainright’s play with Uganda as nicely.

Apart from that, Suns media day is only a couple quick weeks away! Time to start out ramping up for the 2022-23 season.