USA vs Serbia recap: USA finally tested, comes from 17 down to beat Serbia 93-91

The veteran USA players are used to playing on the road, but they have experienced nothing like what they are going to see on Saturday. Well, maybe LeBron James the first time he returned to Cleveland in a Miami uniform, but not the rest of them.

The USA will play Olympic host France for the gold medal on Saturday at the Bercy Arena in Paris. The building will be filled with loud French fans booing Joel Embiid every time he touches the ball (he could have played for France but chose the USA) and bringing an energy that has lifted their team after slow starts the past two games. That crowd seems to impact the referees, too, the USA better not be expecting calls to go their way.

The details on the gold medal matchup:

When: 3:30 ET on Saturday, Aug. 10
Where: Bercy Arena in Paris
How to watch: The game will be broadcast on NBC and can be streamed on Peacock.

It’s hard to put into words the drama and huge plays from Team USA that took them from 13 down entering the fourth quarter to beating Serbia 93-91 and advancing to play France for the gold medal.

Highlights might do a better job.

The question was never talent, it was chemistry. Especially chemistry under pressure.

How would the USA Basketball collection of Hall of Fame superstars respond when finally tested on the biggest international stage?

We have our answer — and the USA is playing for the gold medal because of it.

The USA came from 17 points down, 13 at the start of the fourth quarter, to beat Nikola Jokic and an elite Serbian team. The USA advances to face France for the gold medal on Saturday.

The USA beat Serbia by 52 combined points in an exhibition game in Abu Dhabi and then in the first game of the Paris Olympics, but anyone who knows hoops knew this game would be different.

“Beating a team three times in three weeks, we knew it was going to be difficult. We knew Serbia was going to give us everything they had, kudos to Serbia,” LeBron James said during his walk-off interview. “But we came through. Chef Curry, what a vintage Chef Curry game. Joel (Embiid) was big time for us, and we needed it.”

Serbia is a true team. It has elite players like Jokic (17 points, 11 assists) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (20 points), but it also has the chemistry of players who have grown up playing together in a system. When tested, there wasn’t a question about how they would respond.

For all its talent, the USA is still a collection of stars. Would they have the fight and the grit needed under pressure.

They did. Stephen Curry broke out with 36 points, including nine 3-pointers. LeBron had a triple-double of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Joel Embiid — recruited to the USA specifically for games like this — finished with 19 points.

Most importantly, the Americans showed real fight defensively when
it mattered. For much of the game they let Serbia get comfortably into their sets, and this team knew how to execute. It also hit shots like it had not all Olympics — Serbia shot 50% from 3 for much of the game from beyond the arc.

However, in the final minutes the USA upped its ball pressure — especially from players such as Kevin Durant (who forced an over-and-back) and Devin Booker — and it forced Serbia into mistakes and turnovers, which finally let the USA get out in transition where they thrive.

Under pressure, the USA became the best version of itself.

Thanks to that it will play for gold.

Team USA finally got serious on defense, got a little lucky, and will be playing for gold.

After trailing by as many as 17 points, and 13 entering the fourth, the USA cranked up their defense and won, 93-91.

The USA will play France for the gold medal on Saturday.

Stephen Curry carried the USA offense for much of the night and finished with 34 points. The Americans needed every one of those.

It’s a heartbreaking loss for Nikola Jokic and Serbia, who will face Germany in the bronze medal game.

For far too long on Thursday, the USA let Serbia get comfortable and take their time getting into the offense. That finally changed with real ball pressure.

The result, the USA leads 91-86 with a minute left.

The USA has 3:39 left to get a chance to play for gold and they need stops.

Which they have been getting — and finally securing the rebound — and a LeBron James driving layup tied the game at 84-84.

What a great game, but the USA is finally putting defensive ball pressure on Serbia.

Early in the fourth quarter, twice the USA got the rebound and tried to get out and run, twice Serbia fouled LeBron James before he could get a head of steam and start to make a play.

It has been like this all night. The USA wants to run, but that’s tough to do when they are taking the ball out of the basket because Serbia cannot miss, and in part because they are playing smart, fouling at the right times, being physical, and dragging the game into the mud.

The USA is trying to adjust but trails 78-73 with 7:17 left.

As has happened all game, the USA made their run, Serbia answered and can’t seem to miss from 3.

Serbia is 10 minutes away from a huge upset and the chance to play for gold, it leads the USA 76-63 after three.

Serbia remains hot in a way they have not been in the Olympics to this point, hitting 14-of-28 from 3, and that has been the difference. Bogdan Bogdanovic and Aleksa Avramovic each have 15 for Serbia.

Curry has scored 27 for the USA. The Americans made a run in the third quarter and got the lead down to 6, but an experienced Serbian team did not panic, kept executing, kept hitting shots and now have control of this game.

The USA has come out in the second half with the kind of fire they needed — and only Stephen Curry seemed to be showing — to open the game, and they have chipped away at Serbia’s lead.

Still, Serbia is answering with big shots when they need them.

Serbia leads 67-61 with a couple of minutes left in the third quarter.

LeBron James has been the MVP for the USA through the first four games of the Paris Olympics and he has come out in the second half and set the tone.

LeBron was physical, made some impressive passes, and he plus Joel Embiid have sparked better play from Team USA to open the second half.

Still, Serbia is hitting shots and leads 62-53 with 6:29 left in the third.

As Dwayne Wade said on the broadcast, this is a man’s dunk by Joel Embiid.

Embiid finished the first half with seven points and this dunk helped keep the USA within striking distance at the half of a hot-shooting Serbia.

Behind a fired-up LeBron James taking charge, an emphatic dunk from Joel Embiid, and a 3 from Stephen Curry, the USA has gone on a little run and cut the Serbian lead to 10 at one point.

But it got no closer as Serbia kept answering every USA question by hitting a 3-pointer. Every USA mistake, Serbia makes them pay.

The result is Serbia leads 54-43 at the half.

Stephen Curry is the only guy keeping the USA close, scoring 20 points and hitting 6-of-9 from 3. The problem is the rest of the Americans are 3-of-10 from deep.

LeBron James has nine points and five assists, while Joel Embiid has seven points, but his defensive rotations have been slow.

That has been the USA’s biggest issue—the defense that has carried them to this point has been a step slow. Combine that with a hot-shooting Serbia team, and the USA will need a comeback if it wants to play for gold.

Serbia is led by Bogdan Bogdanovic with 12 points, and Nikola Jokic has nine points and seven assists — he’s been setting guys up since the start of the Paris Olympics, this is the first time his teammates have stepped up and hit the shots. Serbia as a team is 10-of-19 from 3 (and 9-of-16 inside the arc).

Nikola Jokic has come out looking every bit the 3-time MVP and best player on the planet — nine points, six assists, three rebounds and some solid defense. Plus there was this and-1.

Serbia leads 47-32 with 3:45 left in the second quarter.

The USA is struggling in the first half against Serbia and the only guy keeping them close is Stephen Curry.

Watch his hot start with 14 points in the first four minutes.

Nikola Jokic is the best player on the planet, he creates open looks for everyone, but through the first four games of the Paris Olympics Serbia shot 32.4% from 3 — they didn’t take advantage of those looks.

Against the USA they have started 7-of-11 from 3 (and 7-of-9 inside the arc).

The result is a 39-25 Serbian lead with 7 minutes left in the second quarter. The USA has to crank up the defensive pressure, get some easy buckets, and get someone besides Curry going.

If it wasn’t for Stephen Curry, this could be ugly.

Curry had 17 first-quarter points on 6-of-8 shooting (including five 3-pointers), but the rest of Team USA is 1-of-8 with some sloppy turnovers, particularly by Anthony Edwards, and Team USA is down eight after one quarter, 31-23.

Serbia is led by nine points from Bogdan Bogdanovic and six from Jokic.

The USA could not take advantage of the one minute Jokic rested in the first, not scoring in that stretch.

What a shooting start to this game.

The USA started 5-of-9 from 3, led by Curry’s 4-of-6 and 14 quick points.

Serbia has been even hotter, hitting 9-of-11 overall and 5-of-6 from 3. Serbia took advantage of Embiid’s drop coverage to get open looks. Steve Kerr needed more size and mobility on the court and turned to Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis first off the bench.

Serbia leads 25-19 with three minutes left in the first quarter.

The USA could use a big Stephen Curry game against Serbia and this is a promising start — he hit a midrange jumper on the move and a few 3s to score 12 of the USA’s first 13 points.

It’s what the fans want to see, even in Paris.

Serbia leads early by one as they started 5-of-5 from the floor.

No surprises here, this is the starting five for Serbian coach Svetislav Pesic as his squad goes up against Team USA in the medal round.

The Serbian starting five is:

Aleksa Avramovic
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Ognjen Dobric
Nikola Jokic
Filip Petrusev

Steve Kerr has locked into his starting five and nothing is changing. Not from the first time the USA played Serbia in the Paris Olympics, and not from the quarterfinal win against Brazil.

The USA’s starting five in the semi-finals is:

Stephen Curry
Jrue Holiday
Devin Booker
LeBron James
Joel Embiid

We’ll see how quick Kerr is to make changes if things don’t start smoothly for Team USA.

Team USA is in the building.

The building being Bercy Arena.

France started slow. In group play, it needed a four-point play late to force overtime and beat Japan, or they would not have made it to the knockout round. Also, in group play, the French were handled by Germany, losing by 14.

France started slow on Thursday, too, facing Germany in the medal round. Germany was up double digits quickly and looked to be in control for much of the first quarter. But in the second France cranked up its defensive energy, the rockin’ crowd at Bercy Arena got into it, and Victor Wembanyama was making plays.

France came back, took a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter, and hung on at the end to win 73-69.

France will play in the gold medal game on Sunday against the winner of USA vs. Serbia. Germany will play for the bonze.

While Wembanyama is the big name for France, he finished with just 11 points and struggled with his shot, 4-of-17, although he had seven rebounds and was a game-changer defensively in the paint.

Who saved France was former Celtic Guerschon Yabusele who finished with 17 points and was an emotional leader, plus Isaia Cordinier added 16 points. Mathias Lessort (the Knicks have his draft rights) was a force inside and finished with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting.

Germany’s stars struggled. Franz Wagner had 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting, was relatively quiet and had a key turnover late. Dennis Schroder had 18 points but on 6-of-18 shooting. They were the only Germans in double-digits.

France and Germany are playing for a spot in the gold medal game, and Victor Wembanyama is doing his part — at Daniel Theis’ expense.

France is up 10 midway through the fourth quarter.

Team USA knows this third meeting with Serbia will not be like the last two.

“We can’t get lulled to sleep because we beat them twice,” USA coach Steve Kerr said of facing Serbia for the third time in 22 days. “We have to be prepared for their best effort. We’ve got to think about what are they going to do differently.

“Jokic, I guess he could play 40 minutes. What else do they have up their sleeve?”

There’s a legitimate chance Jokic plays the full 40, or close to it — the team craters when he sits. In the group play game against the USA, Serbia was up six when Jokic went to the bench for his customary break late in the first quarter. When he returned a couple of minutes into the second, things had swung, and the USA was up seven, from which Serbia never recovered. Serbia was even with the USA when Jokic played in that game, but were -26 in the less than 10 minutes he sat.

That’s not just happening this time around. Jokic played 38:34 of 45 minutes in Serbia’s come-from-behind quarterfinals win over Australia (45 minutes because the game went to overtime), and the Serbs were +17 when he was on the court and -12 in the 6:26 he sat.

Also, expect the Serbians to play a little better without Jokic, in part because Bogdan Bogdanovic has started to find his groove of late. Serbia has to get its outside shots to fall to have a chance in this game, and depth is an issue, can their bench step up? But ultimately, in a scenario Denver fans are all too familiar with, Serbia can’t go without Jokic for long and have a chance against the USA.

That will be one adjustment, we and Kerr will see what the others are after tip-off.

USA Basketball has looked dominant during the Paris Olympics, rolling to a 4-0 record with an average margin of victory of 24.75 points a game. They have done that largely with depth and defense — Steve Kerr can bring five NBA All-Stars in with his second unit.

That depth of talent can suppress the USA players’ individual stats, a sacrifice players have willingly made to chase gold. Still, we like numbers, so let’s break down the Team USA statistical leaders through four games:

Points per game
1. Anthony Edwards 16.8
2. Kevin Durant 14.8
3. LeBron James 13.8

Rebounds per game
1. Anthony Davis 7.3
2. Jayson Tatum 6
3. LeBron James 5.8

Assists per game
1. LeBron James 7.8
2. Devin Booker 4
2. Anthony Davis 2.5

Field goal percentage
1. LeBron James 67.6%
2. Anthony Edwards 62.5%
3 (T). Kevin Durant 60%
3 (T). Jrue Holiday 60%
3 (T). Tyrese Haliburton 60%