Nikola Jokic of Serbia during the friendly match between France and Serbia at CO'Met Arena on August 23, 2026 in Orleans, France. (Photo by Sandra Ruhaut/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
Nikola Jokic of Serbia during the friendly match between France and Serbia at CO'Met Arena on August 23, 2026 in Orleans, France. (Photo by Sandra Ruhaut/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
Nikola Jokic was so close to leading Serbia to a comeback victory over Victor Wembanyama and France in their friendly matchup ahead of the upcoming FIBA qualifiers.
But his efforts fell short in the clutch, as France went on a coast-to-coast run with 4.7 seconds left on the clock, led by Jaylen Hoard, whose buzzer-beater layup stole the game right back for a 91-90 win. This win comes a few days after their 87-90 loss to Serbia in a previous friendly.
What a drama between France and Serbia
Jaylen Hoard lays it in for THE WIN #FIBAWC pic.twitter.com/VQjUxnQ1LT
— FIBA Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) August 23, 2026
Nikola Jokic ended the game with 34 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists, while shooting 10-24 from the field (41.6 FG%) in 29 minutes of action. And if one were to solely look at these numbers, they could say that Jokic left it all on the court trying to come back from what was once a 20-point deficit for Serbia in the game (54-35 lead at halftime).
However, NBA fans also closely observed Nikola Jokic’s defensive effort on the final play and blamed him on social media for arguably costing Serbia this monstrous comeback against France.
“Na dude is just f–king standing there dawg. Wth is this s–t?”
“Jokic plays defense like the controller disconnected .”
“You see the same defensive effort in the playoffs, unfortunately.”
“Jokic a CONE on defense I can’t wait for NBA season.”
“What f–ing defense do they teach in Serbia ??”
“Jokic’s defense is a war crime.”
“Wtf is Jokic doing?”
“Jokic’s defense couldn’t be more pathetic here.”
Several such reactions flooded social media as the highlights made it clear that Jokic was near the halfway line, nowhere close to rushing back on defense, and easily got blown by on the final possession.
But to be fair, this was just a friendly game, so we can not expect a lot of effort from the team’s most talented player. However, if Serbia was mounting a comeback from down 20 points at one point in the game, they seemed to be playing with all intentions of competing until the final buzzer.
Simply put, if they wanted to give up, there was no point in making this comeback, and they could have waved the white flag initially. So while Serbia wanted to compete, the Nuggets star’s defense can be held responsible for this loss to some extent, but not completely.
Serbia now moves on as they prepare for the second round of FIBA World Cup Qualifiers. They are set to play Iceland in their Group J matchup on August 28. Meanwhile, France is set to play Slovenia in their Group L second-round matchup on August 27 in Paris.
This game was certainly a perfect, nail-biting setup for the upcoming intense round of qualification matchups in Europe for the FIBA World Cup.