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Sixers teammates congratulate Croatia's Saric for game-saving block vs. Spain

REUTERS/Jim Young

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Dario Saric came up huge when his country needed him most.

Croatia completed a stunning 72-70 upset over the heavily-favored Spaniards, thanks in part to a clutch block by Saric on a potential game-tying layup at the buzzer from Pau Gasol.

Moments earlier, Saric split a pair of free throws that could have stretched the lead to three. Two plays before that, Saric got caught on a screen which allowed Nikola Mirotic to pop open from deep.

But Saric more than made up for his errors on the final play of the game.

With two seconds left, Spain ran an inbounds play which featured Gasol rolling to the basket. The set worked perfectly as Gasol wiggled free from his defender for a right-handed hook.

Showing incredible awareness on the play, Saric helped all the way off Mirotic in the weakside corner to meet Gasol at the rim for an emphatic swat within the span of a second. Saric was then mobbed by his teammates as they celebrated an improbable comeback against the second-best team at the Olympics.

Several members of the Philadelphia 76ers also took to Twitter Sunday to congratulate Saric, who's finally expected to join the team after first acquiring him in 2014.

Saric finished with five points, seven rebounds, five assists, and of course, one all-important block. After the game, the young Croatian forward called it a gift for the team.

"It's a gift for the whole team," Saric told reporters. "That block was like cherry on the cake, because the team fought all the time."

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