The star-studded USA men's basketball team faced a fright in Thursday's semifinal game against Serbia and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, after winning their first four games of the 2024 Olympics with ease. The squad trailed by as many as 17 points and was down 13 going into the final quarter.
Over thirty-five minutes of play were spent with Serbia leading, but when it mattered most, the U.S. team prevailed. With 2:24 left in the 95-91 triumph, Stephen Curry's 3-pointer gave Team USA the lead for good as they outscored Serbia 32-15 in the fourth quarter.
Curry put together his best performance in a USA jersey, scoring 36 points -- one shy of the American Olympic record for men's basketball held by Carmelo Anthony and the most ever for a U.S. player in a knockout game. The USA needed almost every one, along with a clutch performance from LeBron James, to advance and face host France for the gold medal on Saturday.
Not the same Serbia
This was the third time between Team
USA and Serbia this summer. The U.S. men had comfortably taken both previous matchups, winning an exhibition in Abu Dhabi 105-79 and the opening game of group play, 110-84.
Serbia shot a total 19 of 71 (27%), struggling to make shots from the field in both of both games. Not at this moment. With guard Aleksa Avramovic hitting four of six 3-pointers and forwards Bogdan Bogdanovic and Ognjen Dobric both making three, Serbia built a double-digit lead through three quarters of 3-pointers.
Serbia relied more heavily on Jokic. Serbia played the USA to a draw with the Denver Nuggets star on the court in the group meeting, but was outscored by 26 points in the 7:15 he spent on the bench. This time, Jokic played nearly 38 minutes of the 40-minute game, and Serbia managed to extend its lead during his brief rests. He finished with 17 points and a game-high 11 assists.
This made Serbia look like the biggest test for Team USA.
Team USA locks down with vets
U.S. coach Steve Kerr relied heavily on his veterans with the game on the line. Kerr's only fourth-quarter sub until the final eight seconds of the game was bringing Joel Embiid in for Anthony Davis. That gave Team USA a closing lineup with four MVPs: Curry, Embiid, Kevin Durant and LeBron James, flanked by Devin Booker -- the only player in that group younger than 30 years old.
The experienced lineup improved their defense. After scoring at least 22 points in each of the first three quarters, Serbia finished the fourth quarter with just 15 points overall and made just 0 of its 9 3-point attempts. Gaining more stops made it possible for the Americans to move quickly, and one such play by Curry resulted in a steal and score that gave them their biggest lead of five points.
At the other end, the stars were able to score against a set Serbia defense. Curry's go-ahead 3, which came off a crushing screen set by Embiid, was the most memorable score. But Durant also made a difficult pull-up after Serbia cut the lead back to two on a Bogdanovic three-point play with 56 seconds remaining.
Steph plays better
Team USA only stayed within striking distance during the first three quarters because of Curry's heroics. In his Olympic debut, he had a poor start, scoring 29 points on 10-of-28 shooting in the first four U.S. games. However, in the semifinals, he more than doubled that amount.
In the closing minutes, Curry took over again, scoring seven of Team USA's last 11 points, including two free throws with eight seconds left to ice the game.
Surprising bench struggles
Throughout the Olympics, including the group matchup with Serbia, the U.S. second unit of Durant, Davis, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Edwards and Derrick White had opened up leads. Durant entered Thursday with Team USA's best plus-minus (plus-72), followed by Edwards (plus-65).
That wasn't the case in the semifinals. Durant (plus-5) was the only U.S. player with a positive plus-minus, and the Americans were outscored by 16 in the 6:46 White played. Durant started slowly, scoring just two points on 1-of-5 shooting over the first three quarters before going 3-of-3 in the fourth, and the other four USA reserves combined for just nine points.
For Saturday's gold medal game, Kerr and the American coaching staff may undergo changes. The best player of the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum, did not participate in the semifinals and received a DNP-CD, just like he did when the USA played Serbia in group play. Tyrese Haliburton, a guard for the Indiana Pacers, was the other American player who did not participate on Thursday.
