During the 30:45 minutes that Nikola Jokić was on the court against Team USA in the group stage encounter, both teams had scored 81 points. During the 9:15 he was on the bench, Team USA outscored Serbia 29-3. So, Charles Barkley being nervous about the result, is very natural. When he expressed that he was worried about the game, Dan Patrick said that shouldn’t be the case. But, the 76ers legend explained why he felt that.

“Because no, Serbia has been playing dead, man,“ Barkley said on the Dan Patrick Show. Patrick on his show then asked Barkley about his reasoning. “Because those other games didn’t matter.” He continued that the goal for the team was always to reach the knockout stage. The exhibition game and the group stage didn’t really matter. According to Barkley, it was a tactic that the Serbians had employed from the beginning.

“Let them win this early game. They’re going to be overconfident because we only got to be better than them from this one game.” It is because of this that Sir Charles is not entirely confident. “I’m really worried about this game today.” However, he still feels that Team USA is the favorite. “I think the United States will win and should win but this game.”

Not just against Team USA in the group stage, Jokic also powered through in the QF. His near triple-double helped erase a 24-point deficit and secure an OT win. Even against Australia, he scored 21 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists.

Team USA beat Serbia in the exhibition games in Abu Dhabi and again in the opening games of Group C. But they weren’t able to stop Jokic, who scored 20 points in the group stage. And just like Charles Barkley, Steve Kerr doesn’t believe Serbia is out of the game.

Charles Barkley’s sentiment echoed by others

The Head coach of Team USA said, “We can’t get lulled to sleep because we beat them twice.” He stated that they have to be prepared for Serbia as they will bring out their best effort. Currently, Jokic leads Serbia in points (19.3), rebounds (11.8), assists (7.5), steals (2.5) and blocks (1.0) per game and has been shooting 60 percent from the field.

In the QF against Brazil, Team USA was leading but shockingly lost the third quarter. They were outscored 35-31, which may be signs of complacency that Charles Barkley was talking about. Even Shannon Sharpe claimed the Americans have no margin of error from this point on, with the stakes much higher than before.

If Team USA can get past the Serbians, they will face the team with the home crowd advantage. France made it to the finals after beating Germany 73-69. So, as Barkley rightly said, the tasks would only get tougher.

“Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.