Team USA overwhelms Serbia down the stretch, advances to gold medal game vs. France
Team USA gave us plenty of drama against arguably the best player in the world.
On Thursday in the 2024 Paris Olympics men’s basketball semifinals, the United States trailed for nearly the entire game before mounting an impressive comeback in the final minutes to steal a win out from underneath three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia. With the 95-91 victory, Team USA advances to the gold medal game set for Saturday against Victory Wembanyama and France.
Unfortunately, Kentucky’s three Team USA pieces didn’t make significant contributions from start to finish, but they did step up during a handful of important moments. Devin Booker finished with six points and one assist as his lone three-pointer early in the fourth quarter helped kickstart Team USA’s incredible comeback. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis added four points, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal while Bam Adebayo recorded just one assist.
Team USA was primarily led by Steph Curry and LeBron James. Curry prevented the Americans from getting blown out in the first half, finishing with 36 points and eight rebounds on 9-14 shooting from deep. James dropped a triple-double consisting of 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. Joel Embiid was huge in the fourth quarter, going for 19 points on 8-11 shooting. All of that was enough to overcome Serbia’s 15-39 mark from long range.
Serbia started this game red-hot from the shortened three-point line — a theme that would continue throughout most of the matchup. Serbia scored 31 points in the first period, its most out of any quarter in the entire event up to this point. If it weren’t for 17 first-quarter points from Curry, the Americans would have been facing a major hole.
Team USA’s struggles continued into the second quarter. At one point, the deficit grew as large as 17 points and was in double digits for most of the frame. The score settled on 54-43 in favor of Serbia at the intermission as Kentucky’s three representatives had a combined five points for the United States.
The Americans quickly came out of the break by cutting Serbia’s lead to under 10 but never got it below six points throughout the third quarter. Serbia took a 13-point advantage into the final frame as Team USA was on the verge of getting blown out. Then Joel Embiid took over.
Embiid was excellent in the fourth quarter, sparking what would be the deciding push down the stretch. Curry gave USA its first lead with just a few minutes remaining. The Americans soon went up by as many as six points before Serbia made one last comeback attempt in the final 60 seconds. But with the United States up by just two and only eight seconds on the clock, Curry hit a pair of free throws that iced the win for good.
After what appeared to be certain doom for Team USA, the Americans’ talent level was simply too much for Serbia to keep up with a full 40-minute game. As a result, it’s onto the gold medal game against host France on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EST. Grab your popcorn, folks — a fifth straight Olympic gold is on the line for the red, white, and blue.
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