Stephen Curry poured in a game-high 36 points and hit a crucial go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:24 left in regulation, lifting the United States to a 95-91 victory over Serbia on Thursday afternoon in the semifinals of the men’s basketball tournament at the Paris Olympics.
The Americans, who have taken home a gold medal at each of the past four Olympics, will play host France in the final on Saturday. Serbia will face Germany in the bronze-medal game, which is also scheduled for Saturday.
It looked like the Serbians were going to cruise to an upset after they carried a 76-63 lead into the final quarter.
But Team USA crawled back, finally drawing even at 84-84 when LeBron James converted a layup with 3:43 remaining.
Filip Petrusev answered with a dunk before Curry knocked down his go-ahead triple.
Layups from James and Curry extended the U.S. lead to 91-86. A Nikola Jokic layup cut Serbia’s deficit to 93-91 with 24 seconds to go before Curry hit a pair of free throws to secure the win.
Curry made 12 of 19 shots from the field and 9 of 14 from 3-point range. He also finished with eight rebounds.
James recorded a triple-double with 16 points, 12 boards and 10 assists, while Joel Embiid supplied 19 points. The Americans shot 57.4 percent overall and made 16 of 32 attempts from beyond the arc.
Atlanta Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic paced the Serbians with 20 points. Jokic notched 17 points and 11 assists and Aleksa Avramovic had 15 points for Serbia, which hit 46.5 percent of its field-goal attempts and 38.5 percent of its 3-pointers (15 of 39).
Serbia made a statement early in the second quarter, scoring 11 of the first 13 points of the period to go up 42-25 on Jokic’s three-point play with 6:25 to go.
Embiid helped keep the Americans afloat, though, scoring seven points over the final 6:14 of the first half as the United States got within 54-43 by the break.
Curry led all scorers with 20 points before the break. He canned six 3-pointers in the first half.
The Serbians led 31-23 after 10 minutes of action.
–Field Level Media
