Serbia to Play Final Qualifiers Without Jokic
After beating Italy in Pesaro, Serbia now knows the schedule for its last four World Cup 2027 qualifiers, games the Eagles will play without Nikola Jokic and Nikola Jovic.
The final buzzer in Pesaro sounded on a 76-64 win over Italy, but there was no time to savor it in the Serbia locker room, because the calendar doesn’t wait. Serbia got that win without Nikola Jokic, who was sick ahead of the game, as we reported right after the final whistle. A day later, something more important for the rest of the campaign has emerged: the schedule for the last four rounds of World Cup 2027 qualifying, and it arrives with no sign that the league’s MVP will be back on the bench before March.
A 6-2 record, but the hardest part is still ahead
Serbia, coached by Dusan Alimpijevic, carries a record of six wins and two losses into the final stretch, good enough for second place in the group, just behind unbeaten Turkey. Italy dropped to third after the loss in Pesaro, sitting at 5-3. Lithuania is 4-4, Bosnia and Herzegovina has three wins against five losses, and Iceland stands at 3-4.
The numbers suggest the job is nearly done, but nearly means nothing in qualifying until the last game is actually played. Four remain, and none of them will be easy.
When Serbia plays through the rest of qualifying
The schedule is now official:
- November 26, 2026, Lithuania vs Serbia, away
- November 29, 2026, Serbia vs Italy, home
- February 26, 2027, Iceland vs Serbia, away
- March 1, 2027, Serbia vs Lithuania, home
The first test in November is also the toughest. Lithuania is a direct rival for a qualifying spot, and a road trip to that arena rarely goes smoothly. Three days later comes the Italy rematch, against a team that just lost in Pesaro and will be looking for an answer in front of its own fans. The winter leg of the schedule, in February and March, closes things out with a trip to Iceland and a final home game, once again against Lithuania, in a match that could well decide who goes to the World Cup outright and who ends up in an extra round.
Why the Eagles are missing their two biggest stars
What sets this final stretch apart from the August window is the list of players who won’t be there. Jokic played against Iceland and Italy in August and helped build this record, but for the November and February-March windows, the coach won’t be able to count on him because of his NBA commitments. The same goes for Nikola Jovic, and Alimpijevic will also have to plan around missing a number of Euroleague players, since their clubs have their own obligations on those dates.
In practice, that means Serbia will play its toughest remaining games, against a direct rival for qualification and a team out for revenge, with a bench considerably thinner than the one it had in Pesaro. Every win banked during the August window, while Jokic was still on the floor, is now worth double.
What this means for qualification
Six wins in eight rounds is, realistically, a solid foundation. It means Serbia doesn’t need to win every remaining game to secure a World Cup spot, a decent showing across these last four rounds should be enough. But a team that takes the floor for its most important games without the best center on the planet and without one of its best young forwards has no room to relax, especially against Lithuania, which is fighting for the exact same spot in the standings.
Alimpijevic now has two months to build a rotation that can carry the load without Jokic and Jovic. The first test comes on November 26, on the road against Lithuania, and that’s where we’ll find out just how good that plan really is.
