PARIS (France) – It doesn’t get any better than this! Serbia and the United States battled for 40 minutes, and with the game on the line, the biggest stars had to take the hardest shots to get the United States into the final.

At the end of the game the score was 95:91. Serbia will now face Germany for third place, while the USA will play the final against France, just like they did three years ago in Tokyo.

Turning point

Serbia was a true masterpiece and showed that it put its cards on the table both in the friendly match in Abu Dhabi and in the first meeting at the Olympic Games in Paris.

When they showed up in the semifinals, their defense was incredible, mixing a lot of zone coverage with matchup zone coverage and man-to-man coverage, provoking numerous mistakes from the U.S. offense.

Aleksa Avramovic played a huge offensive game, scoring 15 points in the first half to give Serbia a 17-point lead, despite Steph Curry scoring 20 points before halftime!

When the USA made their big run late in the third quarter and narrowed the deficit to -6, Marko Guduric came up with six points in a row, including a four-point play, making the score 76-63 after three quarters.

But the US team did not let itself be defeated. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid and Steph Curry staged a comeback, equalizing the score at 84:84 with 3:39 minutes to go and thus paving the way for a stormy finale.

Curry’s ninth three-pointer of the game gave them their first lead since midway through the first quarter before LeBron James and Steph Curry both ran out in transition to make it 91-86 with just under two minutes left.

Serbia also had a comeback in store. Bogdan Bogdanovic managed an and-one and reduced the deficit to -2 with 56.4 minutes left in the game.

Coach Steve Kerr gave the ball to Kevin Durant, who made a long two-point shot that turned out to be a stab in the back.

Game Hero

We’ve waited a long time for a real Steph Curry game, and he delivered when it mattered most, scoring 36 points on 9-of-14 shooting from beyond the three-point line.

Curry was great in the semifinals:

And finally Steph broke out: 36 points and 9 three-pointers

LeBron was also great:

New King: LeBron first player with two Olympic triple-doubles

Statistics don’t lie

If the USA makes 16 of 32 three-point shots, not many teams can win.

Conclusion

Serbia must now recover from this grief and play a match against reigning world champions Germany on Saturday morning to finish the Olympic Games on the podium.

Nikola Jokic played 38 minutes and finished with 17 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds, Bogdan Bogdanovic had 20, Avramovic stayed with 15 for coach Svetislav Pesic.

The USA, on the other hand, will have to face 13,000 fans in the Bercy Arena in the championship final against France.

LeBron James had another memorable game, becoming the first man with two Olympic triple-doubles, collecting 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Joel Embiid was strong down the stretch, scoring 19 points.

said

“I tried to be aggressive, make plays for our team, do a little bit of everything on the court and my teammates believed in me. It’s good to be tested. It’s great to be tested. And our ultimate goal is just one game away, so we’re looking forward to the game on Saturday.” – LeBron James, USA

“I mean, it’s right up there. I’m 39 years old, I’m in my 22nd season, I don’t know how many more opportunities and moments I’m going to get to compete in big games, and tonight was a big game for us.” – LeBron on his triple-double

“Once you get active on defense, it usually fuels the offense. You get stops and the game starts to evolve. They came out and hit some incredibly tough shots in the first half and you have to give them credit, they’re a really good team and it’s hard to beat a team three times.” – Steph Curry, USA

“To come back like we did… I’ve seen a lot of Team USA basketball, and that was special.” – Curry again

“I haven’t had many opportunities and I haven’t shot well all tournament. But that doesn’t make you waver in confidence if you seize the moment and I had some great chances early in the game. I knocked them down, kept the rhythm and in the fourth quarter – Joel made a great block, luckily they didn’t count that as a flop because it was bad, and to sink a big shot like that, we live for those moments. It doesn’t matter if you shoot three times or how many times I shot tonight, as long as you stay confident.” – Curry on his big three-pointer in the home stretch

“I shot three times in the last game and I didn’t want to force it because that wasn’t what the game called for. That’s the beauty of Team USA and FIBA ​​and this whole experience. Every game it was someone different.” – Steph on USA’s depth

“Of course I’m proud of our performance, especially after the match against Australia, where we came back from -24, but that cost us a lot of energy. But you could see how strong we were mentally, we held out until the end and one or two balls decided the game. In Serbia we usually say whoever loses has the right to be angry. I’m not angry at all, I’m proud of everything we did.” – Serbia head coach Svetislav Pesic

“We knew before the tournament that there would always be games like this. It’s the Olympics, FIBA, 40 minutes… One game and you’re out. We knew that this tournament was not going to be easy to get through. I had that experience from Tokyo when I was an assistant there. You have to be able to keep your composure and that’s what impressed me most in the second half, just the composure of our guys combined with the fighting spirit to get through it.” – Coach Kerr

Short notes

• The United States reached the gold medal game at the Olympic Games for the 17th time, 12 more times than any other team (Soviet Union 5).

• This was the USA’s smallest victory in the semifinals since 2000 (Lithuania, 85-83).

• Overall, the USA was ahead for only 3:25 minutes of the game.

• LeBron James achieved the fourth triple-double in Olympic history, after Sasha Belov in 1976, himself in 2012 and Luka Doncic in 2021

• Steph’s nine three-pointers are the most by a player since Carmelo Anthony’s nine against Australia in 2016

• Steph’s 36 points are the second-best performance by a U.S. player at the Olympics, trailing only Carmelo Anthony’s 37 points against Nigeria in 2012.

• Nikola Jokic became the first player since Detlef Schrempf and Arvydas Sabonis in 1992 to record double-doubles in four consecutive games at the Olympic Games.

FIBA