Croatia Gets Past CIS, 75-74

BARCELONA —  Just in case Igor Miglinieks couldn’t tell who won from the scoreboard, Croatia’s Drazen Petrovic stood over his fallen foe from the Commonwealth of Independent States and screamed it at him.

“I just told him we won the game,” Petrovic said after Croatia rallied to win, 75-74, Thursday to make the gold-medal game against the United States.

“He was trying to be physical, but I was nailing four-five jumpers in his face,” Petrovic added.

In newly formed Croatia, where the nation is precarious, not to mention national pride, they take their basketball seriously.

Thus Petrovic wasn’t completely surprised to see Toni Brdolljak, head of the Croatian delegation, board the bus before the game and order the team to win.

The Croats promptly tensed up, fell 10 points behind in the first half and sank to 12 back in the second.

Petrovic led a furious rally, snarling at Miglinieks, exhorting his teammates, waving at Croatian fans to get busy cheering.

“You can’t understand,” Petrovic said. “Our country has 4-5 million people. This is a great victory.

“It’s just not basketball. It’s civil war. Everybody expects us to be second, behind the U.S.”

The United States has already routed Croatia once, but Petrovic isn’t conceding publicly beforehand as all the others have.

“I hope Toni (Kukoc), Dino (Radja) and Stoyko (Vrankovic) are going to play much better this time against them,” he said. “They’re not afraid this time.”

His teammates might not be convinced.

Kukoc was asked what it would take for Croatia to win.

“Joke,” he said, grinning.