Croatia overcomes Spain in Olympics opener

Mario Hezonja scored five points for Croatia as they scored a surprising come-from-behind victory over Spain in their Olympic opener.

It was a game to forget for Dario Saric. He had shot 1 for 7 from the floor, leaving Croatia down its second most important scorer. He made just three of his six free throws, missing a critical free throw on Croatia’s final possession to extend the lead to three.

Spain trailed by two points, desperately trying to get the ball to Pau Gasol. On an inbounds from beneath the basket, Spain found Gasol beneath the basket. Saric, the former Orlando Magic draft pick traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for Elfrid Payton, came from the weakside and blocked Gasol’s shot.

He had become Croatia’s savior in an emotional 72-70 victory over Spain in their opening game at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Croatia had hung around long enough to chip away at Spain’s early lead and overcame them finally in the fourth quarter behind Bojan Bogdanovic‘s 23 points. Darko Planinic came up big in the fourth quarter too on his way to 11 points.

The isolation-heavy Croatian team found a way to dig out stops and create offense, taking it to Spain throughout the fourth quarter to complete the comeback.

Although Magic forward Mario Hezonja was not part of the final push, his play in the second and the third quarter were critical to keeping Croatia in the game as Spain tried to pull away behind Gasol’s strong first quarter.

Hezonja ended the game with five points on 2-for-5 shooting. As is normally the case with Croatia, he was largely relegated to standing in the corner and hoping for a kickout. Croatia’s offense relies heavily on one-on-one plays from Bogdanovic, Saric and Roko Ukic.

Hezonja’s opportunities did come and he put himself in good positions to score. His two makes were certainly memorable.

His first make, he was trying to peel out to receive a pass and did a good job setting up the ball denial so he could cut backdoor. He received the pass and made a tough finish in the lane for his first basket. Hezonja had another opportunity in the lane that he was unable to finish.

His highlight was undoubtedly his basket to end the second quarter. With time ticking down in the half, Hezonja caught the ball on the wing, sidestepped the defender to the right and hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. That brought Croatia to within three points.

Hezonja showed those flashes in an offense that does not give him much opportunity to create.

It was largely an invisible game for Hezonja though. He did not make a ton of impact on the defensive end.

Croatia had him guarding Sergio Rodriguez and Juan Carlos Navarro for the most part. He was fine contesting shots and keeping them from scoring. He was not scored on in the game. But neither of those players were looking to attack either. Hezonja was rarely tested on the defensive end.

He was relatively fine positioning wise. He recovered well, but was often chasing Navarro especially coming around screens. He got caught a few times over running his close out, giving up a driving lane. His defense did a good job giving him time to recover.

There were a few plays too where Hezonja could have done a bit more to protect the paint. Pau Gasol came running down the lane and Hezonja opted to tag him rather than follow and deny, giving up an easy pass and bucket to Gasol. He gave up a 3-pointer too when he committed to his man over the pass to the top of the key, failing to rotate to discourage that pass and still recover to his man.

These might be finer points. Hezonja was largely good throughout the game for what Croatia asked him to do.

Meager stat lines and guarding fourth and fifth options is part of Hezonja’s role right now for this team.

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Croatia will be back in action Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. against Argentina.