With his team on the brink of elimination, Lakers point guard Marcelo Huertas turned in his best performance yet at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Huertas racked up 12 points, six rebounds and 11 assists, directing the high-flying Brazilians to an 86-69 victory over Nigeria.
The captain of Brazil (2-3), Huertas stepped up when the Nigerians came within in striking distance of an upset. The Rio hosts led by six midway through the fourth quarter before Huertas took the game into his own hands.
Via a series of layups and free throws, the Sao Paulo native scored 10 points in the final six minutes at Carioca Arena to prevent his team from behind knocked out of the tournament.
While he was the go-to scorer at the end of the game, Huertas spent the majority of the contest setting up his teammates, including Nene (19 points), Alex Garcia (13) and Rafael Hettsheimeir (12) — all of whom received three assists each from “Marcelinho.”
The Brazilians led by as many as 20 points but were only up by seven entering the final period. However, led by Huertas — who also shot 6-of-6 on free throws and snagged three offensive rebounds — they outscored Nigeria (1-4) in the fourth, 27-17.
Brazil will now wait to see if this victory is enough to pass through to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
It will ironically need help from its rival, Argentina, which faces Spain at 3 p.m. on Monday.
Should Spain (2-2) lose, Brazil will advance thanks to its head-to-head victory. However, if the Spaniards fall and Croatia (2-2) does as well, the two highest scoring teams of the three will move on.
Brazil is currently 101 points ahead of Croatia and 85 ahead of Spain. The Brazilians do not own the tiebreaker over the Croatians, so a loss by Croatia to Lithuania on Monday does not necessarily mean Brazil will advance.
Nigeria — which was led by 16 points from Josh Akognon — was eliminated.
