Everybody exhale.
The U.S. men's basketball team had cruised through its first four games of the Paris Olympics, so overwhelming that it was unclear whether anyone would be able to test the Americans on their way to a fifth straight gold medal. But that test arrived in a big way in the semifinals on Thursday, and with its back to the wall, Team USA showed what it was made of: Trailing Serbia by as many as 15 in the third quarter, the U.S. rode a huge final period, a vintage game from Steph Curry and some late magic from LeBron James to a 95-91 win and a spot in the final on Saturday.
"I'm really humbled to have been a part of this game," head coach Steve Kerr said afterward. "It's one of the greatest basketball games I've ever been a part of."
The U.S. outscored Serbia 32-15 in the fourth, starting the quarter on a 21-8 run capped by a transition layup from James to tie the game. Curry followed with another 3 — his ninth of the game — to give Team USA its first lead since 15-13 midway through the first.
Curry poured in 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting and 9-of-14 from deep, turning back the clock a few years and authoring the signature Olympic moment that was just about the only thing his career was missing at this point. James became the first player to record multiple Olymipic triple-doubles, finishing with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, while Joel Embiid finally roared to life for 19 points and multiple big buckets late.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored a team-high 20 points for Serbia, which got off to a scorching start from deep until cooling off late as the game swung.
The dramatic win sets up a blockbuster final against France, which outlasted Germany in an emotional win in the other semifinal on Friday. It also told us a bit about this U.S. team, which found another gear — physically and emotionally — with the game in the balance in the fourth. Now we know how it responds to taking a punch; that could come in handy again on Saturday, in front of what should be an electric crowd at Bercy Arena in Paris. Read on for a full recap and key takeaways from an instantly iconic game.
U.S. 95, Serbia 91: Full recap and key takeaways
Serbia comes out swinging
We thought going in that Round 3 of this matchup might be a bit more competitive than the pre-Paris exhibition and the group-stage version; it's awfully hard to rout a team three times in a span of weeks, especially when that team boasts arguably the best player in the world.
And sure enough, it was Serbia who delivered the first punch, taking advantage of a U.S. defense that wasn't as fully dialed in as it had been in previous games. Serbia was scorching early, shooting 11-of-17 from the field and 5-of-9 from 3 in the first quarter to build a surprising eight-point lead.
The hot shooting had the added effect of keeping the U.S. in the half court on offense. Serbia turned the ball over just once in the first quarter and three times all half, slowing the game down, deploying multiple looks on defense (including some spurts in a 2-3 zone) and forcing the U.S. to win a battle of execution. That made it hard for Team USA to ever really get rolling; Kevin Durant was in and out of the game with early foul trouble, and Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards and Derrick White struggled to knock down shots.
"We just needed to limit our mistakes," Booker said. "Stop turning the ball over, stop giving them offensive rebounds and play faster. We were playing slow. We were playing into their own defense.”
Serbia, meanwhile, had no such problems, stretching the lead to double figures in the second quarter and keeping it there for most of the middle portion of the game. Aleksa Avramovic, Ognjen Dobric and Marko Guduric combined to knock down 9-of-14 3s, including a four-point play from Guduric that made it a 76-61 game late in the third quarter and officially had the U.S. hitting the panic button.
Luckily for the U.S., there was a chef in the house.
Finally, the Steph Game
For all the players who shined during Team USA's hot start to this tournament, Curry had been a bit anonymous, never really asserting himself on offense and shooting just 25% from 3.
But when his team needed him most, Steph went nuclear. Curry was the biggest reason the U.S. didn't dig itself an even bigger hole early, hitting four 3s in the first four minutes of the game and six in the first half — the only American player in double figures at the break.
"I knew I had it in there, it was just a matter of when," Curry said. "I haven't had many opportunities and haven't shot the ball well the whole tournament, but it doesn't waver your confidence to meet the moment and I had some great looks to start the game."
Curry hit two more 3s in the third, then delivered the dagger that gave the U.S. the lead for good. It was yet another testament to the true strength of this U.S. team: Put enough stars on one roster, and someone's bound to be hot on any given night. Tonight it was Curry, and that's a great club to have in the bag ahead of the final against France.
Embiid gets angry
Of course, Steph wasn't the only one keeping the U.S. hanging around. Embiid had made headlines mostly for the wrong reasons in these Olympics, getting handled by Jokic in the first matchup between these two teams. But the rematch seemed to awaken something in the big fella, because Embiid played angry on Thursday, showing an intensity on both ends that we haven't seen from him in some time.
"Joel was everything," James said. "He made every big shot that we needed throughout that run. When they kept making shots, Joel kept making plays."
With Serbia hanging on with a few minutes to go in the fourth, Embiid scored seven straight points for the U.S., helping set up James' and Curry's heroics. He finally found the feel for his midrange jumper, stepping into it with confidence, and he worked his butt off defending on the perimeter whenever Serbia tried to involve him in ball screen actions. He, looked, in other words, like an MVP, and his half-court offense was vital to a U.S. team that didn't have enough of it for long stretches of this game.
The U.S. shows its mettle
This was the question we'd been waiting to have answered: If and when the U.S. found itself in a tight game, how would it respond? It's tough to deliver any better of an answer than Thursday, an overwhelming fourth-quarter performance on both ends.
"We knew coming into this tournament that there's always going to be a game like this," Kerr said. "It's the Olympics. Forty minutes. One game and you're out. You're not going to breeze through this tournament. You have to be able to maintain your poise, and that's what impressed me the most in the second half was just the poise of our guys, combined with the competitive spirit to get it done."
It started, as it always does with this team, on defense, where James, Durant and even Embiid seemed to find another gear. Kerr adjusted his strategy, putting James or Durant on Jokic and sticking Embiid elsewhere, and the switch seemed to bother The Joker a bit. Serbia made just two field goals over the final five minutes, the open looks from 3 all but drying up. From there, you know the drill: Rebounds mean fast breaks, and fast breaks against this U.S. team mean death. It's fitting that the game-sealing baskets were two breakaway layups for Curry and LeBron, a flashback to the way we'd seen this team play all Olympics long.
What's next for Team USA?
The matchup everybody came here to see, and a rematch of the gold medal game from Tokyo: The U.S. against Victor Wembanyama and France for all the marbles, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, in front of what should be an absolutely electric crowd in Paris.
France hasn't always had the easiest time in this tournament, but Les Bleus have hit their stride of late, with a small-ball lineup adjustment unlocking a whole new level of play and some truly ferocious defense. It promises to be another test for this U.S. team.