Boban and Serbia move on to Eurobasket final against Slovenia

Boban Marjanovic of the Detroit Pistons and his Serbia squad have secured a bid in the Eurobasket finals against Luka Doncic and Slovenia.

While his teammates with the Detroit Pistons are returning to the Detroit area in preparation for training camp and the preseason, Boban Marjanovic is still playing for national pride in Eurobasket 2017 with his Serbian squad.

After an 87-79 victory against Alexei Shved, Timofey Mozgov and Russia, Serbia will move on to Sunday’s final against Luka Doncic, Goran Dragic and Slovenia. The final will be played Sunday afternoon and broadcast on ESPN 3.

Marjanovic had a strong first half in which he scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting and added 4 rebounds. He was unstoppable in the post and Mozgov was completely overmatched when Boban had the ball in position.

He finished the game with 18 points and 6 rebounds.

This was yet another exhibition of the juxtaposition between his unstoppable offensive touch and skill, and the struggles to move his feet defensively that nailed him to the bench last season with the Detroit Pistons.

While he’s overwhelming near the rim defensively, making him move side-to-side is the key to negating his ability to protect the rim. Russia was able to put him in a blender repeatedly on drives to the basket.

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While the offensive skills are remarkable, his shortcomings on the defensive end will likely continue to complicate his minute allocation in 2017-18. Thanks to Aron Baynes‘ departure, however, more minutes are assured, and frustrations aside it’s always a delight to watch Boban Marjanovic play basketball.