It took everything they had, but Team USA men’s basketball squeaked by Serbia in the Olympic semifinals to advance to the gold medal Game with a 95-91 win on Thursday, August 8.
Team USA will face France on Saturday, August 10, for the gold, while Serbia will play Germany in the bronze medal Game.
LeBron James had a triple-double (16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists), and Stephen Curry scored 36 and made nine threes to lead Team USA.
Serbia led for almost the entire game, taking an 11-point advantage into halftime and a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter. That’s when Team USA scored 10 of the first 12 points of the period to pull within five. Curry finally put the Americans ahead on a three-pointer with 2:24 left. They never trailed again.
While the United States boasts the most talented roster in the Olympics with superstars like Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid joining James and Curry, the gold medal Game was never a guarantee. The United States is home to the highest concentration of basketball talent in the world, but basketball has continued to grow on a global scale. Even if the best players in many European countries play professionally in the NBA, they suit up for their home nations in the Olympics.
On Thursday, it was the Atlanta Hawks’ Bogdan Bogdanović who led Serbia with 20 points. Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić had 17 points and 11 assists.
“Gotta get it the hard way. We were preaching that the whole fourth quarter,” James said in an on-air interview shortly after the Game ended. “We knew it was going to be difficult. We knew Serbia was going to give us everything they had. Kudos to Serbia.”
James is 39 and likely playing in his final Olympic games. With Curry being 36 and playing in his first Olympic games, the two future Hall of Famers almost didn’t have a chance to win a gold medal together.
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“Steph Curry with a vintage Steph Curry game,” James marveled. “It was only a matter of time before he had one of these games. He put too much work in not to have a game like this.”
The USA vs. France game will pit James and Co. against 2023 No. 1 NBA Draft pick Victor Wembanyama. It will be a rematch of the gold medal game from 2021 in Tokyo, and tip-off is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
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Lebron James
