By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
From teammates with the senior national team of Serbia in several major international tournaments, including the Olympic Games 2024 and winning a bronze medal in France last summer, Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic are opponents in the Western Conference Quarterfinals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs presented by Google. A best-of-seven series between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers starts in Ball Arena on Saturday.
“It’s just basketball at the end of the day. It’s a team sport,” said the 32-year-old winger of the Clippers in a media session on Thursday, “Knowing him, I know he wants to play team-style basketball. I know what makes him difficult to guard and everything, but I think it will be team basketball at the end of the day and who wants it more.”
“After the game, we can talk, but in the game, everybody is trying to win,” he stressed, citing connections between multiple players of both sides, beyond his relationship with the Joker.
Since moving to the Clippers midway through the 2024-25 Regular Season, Bogdanovic contributed 11.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.1 points per contest to securing the fifth seed on the playoff bracket of the Western Conference.
“I honestly think he attacks every single game in the same way. For him, there is no difference,” he replied to a second question about his international teammate, “For sure, there is that extra motivation now when the competition is coming to an end, but I think his biggest quality is preparing the same way for every single game.”
“He makes them way better, but he needs the rest of his teammates as well,” added Bogdanovic.
On the opposite side of the series, interim head coach David Adelman is instead looking to get the maximum out of Jokic.
“I don’t think it’s possible to win what we want to win with him just going one on three or one on four. We are extremely confident in the other guys to make open shots. They have to shoot those shots, commit to them, and then that makes things easier for Nikola,” said the 43-year-old tactician, “You want the game to gradually come to him. Let him read the game, and we can react from there.”
“It’s part of your job to protect him. I think it’s also part of his job to trust his teammates, which he’s done an unbelievable job of. It’s not just the assist numbers, it’s the open shots created,” continued Adelman, “In the Playoffs, you can live and die with wide open shots, you have to.”
Photo Credit: FIBA