Curry and LeBron avoid disaster as USA go for fifth straight gold

The big favorite suffered a lot and was unable to resolve a match in which it was almost always behind until the last two minutes. Against the team of Nikola Jokic (17 points, 11 assists) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (with 20 points, the top scorer for his team), who fell with honour and will play for bronze against Germany, defeated just before by the host country. And if the Olympic final will be a repeat of the Tokyo Games, the match for third place will be a reenactment of the final of the last World Cup, which the Germans won.

Having overcome the scare, in a match in which the 19 points of Joel Embiid were of vital importance, the ‘Team USA‘ will seek his seventeenth title. Kevin Durant, an unprecedented fourth gold; LeBronhis third; and Currywho is making his Games debut, will go for one of the few trophies he doesn’t yet have.

USAwho reached the semi-finals after having easily won all their matches, had dealt Serbia a severe beating in the qualifying round at Lille (84-110). But much of the momentum had come in that match while their star player, Nikola Jokic. Chosen again as NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player). Competition that he had won the previous season with the Denver Nuggets.

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Serbia had turned the game around against Australia -after a monumental scolding of his players Svetislav Pesic-, in which they were 24 points behind and which they resolved in overtime to reach the semi-final. The Americans, for their part,ra, they had qualified, almost without breaking a sweat, against Brazil. Marcelinho Huertaswho said goodbye to his national team in this tournament. This, after having made it through the group stage, in which no one could have let him down.

This Thursday, however, Serbia made things difficult for them from the start. USAwho repeated the ‘five’ that came out against Brazil. Despite the scoring festival of Curry (17 points in the first quarter alone), the effectiveness of Bogdanović (who scored nine during that time) and Aleksa Avramovic (who finished with 15 points), put the Europeans ahead, much more solid in the inside game.

Jokic made it 20-27 on the scoreboard, before Bogdanovic closed the first act with an eight-point advantage for Serbia (23-31)..

Things got even more complicated for the new version of ‘Dream Team‘ -very far from the dream team of Barcelona’92, led by Micheal Jordan, Magic Johnson y Larry Bird– when Serbia, which was defending better and at that moment winning the battle for the rebound (11/7) – levelled at the end (34/33), a partial start of 2-11 was marked. Which raised its maximum advantage to seventeen (25-42).

Embiid – born in Cameroon and booed again by the French public for having rejected playing for France in favour of ‘Team USA’ – returned to the court to try to stop Jokic; but Serbia was proving to be much more cohesive as a team than the constellation of stars led by the no less stellar Steve Kerr.

A spectacular and forceful dunk by Embiid could be perceived as a declaration of principles. But Serbia -who grabbed six more rebounds (20/14) during the first twenty minutes- had a historic opportunity before him; and it was clear that he was going to make his defeat come true.

The percentage of triples of Curry (6 of 9; and 20 points in the first half) replicated it Avramovic (4 of 6; and 15 points before the break) and Pesic’s men went into the locker room eleven up (43-54).

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After the break, Embiid nailed a triple and brought the score to eight (46-54), which soon became ten again (49-59) after a dunk by the pivot of Yaundéwhich, together with Curry y LeBron They accounted for 42 of their team’s 49 points at that time.

Needing more collaboration, Jrue Holiday got within six (59-65) with a three-pointer.

But not only were they unable to cut the lead in the third quarter, but with a three-pointer and an additional shot, Marko Guduric put Pesic’s team back up by fifteen points (61-76). Tragedy was looming, as the NBA stars had the last ten minutes to avoid the tournament’s big upset.

And when the alarms went off, the beast woke up, with two triples of Kevin Durant and Devin Bookercolleagues in Phoenix, which put his team within five (73-78). A colossal Embiid put them within two (82-84), before LeBron put fear into his rival by tying the game at 84. Curry and LeBron put in the ahead of their team 89-86; and they suffered to defeat it, but they did not let go of their very precious piece to come out suffocated, but victorious, and close the score at 95-91.