PRAGUE (Czech Republic) - It was always going to be an uphill battle for Czech Republic, and after learning that their captain Tomas Satoransky would not suit up for the game against Serbia, it got tougher. Svetislav Pesic's men used a dominant second quarter to escape their opposition and secure their 2-0 record.

It finished 81-68, meaning Serbia sits on top of the group standings or now. Czech Republic are now in a do-or-die situation at 0-2 with three games remaining.

Turning point: Backed by the crowd in the sold-out arena in Prague, the hosts were holding on in the first quarter, ending it with a five point deficit. However, Serbia's next huddle proved to be the winning one, as coach Pesic found the panacea for the poison already after 10 minutes.

A much more determined Serbian squad came out in the second, and a 15-0 run followed, suddenly making a couple of thousand Serbian fans louder than the Czech majority in the stands. The biggest lead was 23 points in the third quarter.

However, the hosts did have one final push to raise the volume in the arena again. The Czechs got back to a single-digit deficit a few times in the last quarter, only to see Vasilije Micic, Nikola Jokic and Vanja Marinkovic come up with big shots and assists, pushing the lead back to safety.

TCL Player of the Game: Nikola Jokic is simply unstoppable. The two-time NBA MVP had 18 points in 25 minutes of work, done on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, with 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.

Stats don't lie: Turnovers hurt Czech Republic, as they committed 15 of them, which Serbia turned into an 18-8 advantage in points off turnovers. At the same time, Serbia lost possession only five times in the entire game.

Bottom line: Serbia look like a rock-solid team, and keep in mind that Nikola Milutinov is yet to join this squad after his health issues late in the training camp. When he arrives, he'll be another big target for Vasilije Micic to hit, as Micic once again led the team in assists. He had six of them, and 13 points, as well.

For Czech Republic, not playing Satoransky could have been a calculated risk by coach Ronen Ginzburg. Especially since Sunday is a day off in this group, allowing the captain to have a bigger break between games 1 and 3, and putting him in a better position to heal and contribute in Czech Republic's quest towards the sweet sixteen phase. Vit Krejci was the spark off the bench with 13 points.

They said:
"We really opened the game pretty well, we had great energy in the beginning, but with some lack of confidence in the third quarter, we gave them a chance to get back in the game. For us, generally, the most important is to win the game by 1. If we can win by 20, it's great, but in this kind of a tournament the most important thing is a victory. We had a great experience for everyone, we're getting ourselves ready for the next game. One more time our fans showed great pride and great support. As a nation, we are very sportive oriented, we like to support our teams and athletes, the fans showed great energy and they were our sixth player." - Vasilije Micic, Serbia

"We are satisfied with attitude and performance, we don't have any problems with this. We demonstrated, especially in the second quarter, how we want to play our defense, and in the third quarter, we expected that Czech Republic will show pride. They started to play aggressive defense, we lost our organization, but for us it's important to improve from game to game. Maybe we needed exactly one game like tonight. We don't get anything if we win by 20 or more points, what the people in Serbia expect. This is not important for us, what's important is to see how it's possible to improve in this tournament." - Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic

"I think it was a much better game for us than yesterday. We wanted to come with a different mentality, be aggressive, we knew that's the only way to try to beat Serbia. We knew that offense wasn't our problem, so we focused on defense and did a pretty good job for the majority of the game. There was 35 minutes that were really good, we have to extend it to 38 or ideally 40 minutes. There's still more from us." - Vit Krejci, Czech Republic

"Today's atmosphere was great for Czech Republic. It's not a secret that it's difficult for us without Tomas, he tried last time, but couldn't play today. I'm happy for the atmosphere in the team, and the defense in the second half. For us, FIBA EuroBasket 2022 starts on Monday. We have three games left, three games that we can win." - Czech Republic coach Ronen Ginzburg

FIBA