The United States’ men’s basketball team took its first step toward winning a fifth consecutive gold medal at the Summer Olympics on July 28 with a 110–84 victory over Serbia.
Serbia started its tournament with medal aspirations of its own. Led by three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic, Serbia had won two silver medals in its history in the Olympics. But having Jokic on the roster raised the confidence level of the entire country.
The two countries played each other just 11 days before the official start of the Olympic tournament in Abu Dhabi, where the United States won 105–79. But that was a warm-up game in which Bogdanovic wasn’t a factor.
So, of course, the first basket of the game came off a steal—by Aleksa Avramovic for Serbia. Avramovic then gave Serbia a 4–0 lead early before Jokic was whistled for an early foul on Joel Embiid. In the Olympics, fouls are limited to five per player, so Serbia’s best player picking up his first inside the opening three minutes of the game was significant.
The first basket for the United States came from LeBron James, who stole the ball and took it to the rack for a dunk that got the crowd on its feet. But Serbia scored the next 6 points to take a 10–2 lead and U.S. coach Steve Kerr had to burn his first timeout.
Steph Curry hit a three right out of the timeout to give the United States some energy, although Serbia continued to run an efficient offense. Two more threes, both from Devin Booker, cut the lead to just one, and the United States started to garner some momentum.
Kerr continued to rotate players early in their first Olympic action, and James started to take over. A layup through traffic that included a foul gave the United States its first lead of the game and James flexed at his bench. He hit the free throw to make the score 14–12 in favor of the United States.
Serbia then went on a 7–0 run to take a 5-point lead again, which brought Kevin Durant off the bench for the United States. He had missed all of the warm-up games because of a lingering injury.
The two teams trading runs became the theme as the United States closed the first quarter on an 11–0 run, punctuated by an Anthony Edwards dunk in the closing seconds to give the favored Americans a 5-point lead at the end of the opening 10 minutes.
Serbia had no answer for Durant. At the first stoppage of the second quarter, he had 11 of the United States’ 32 points and hadn’t missed a shot in less than five minutes of time on the floor. His first shot out of the stoppage was a three-pointer over Jokic. He checked out with 14 points in six minutes with the United States leading by 10.
As the second quarter progressed, the game started to slow down and the players settled into their first Olympic game. Serbia was able to match shots with the United States, but the Americans were able to come back and keep the lead at about 10.
Bogdanovic hit a three with 2:46 left in the first half and was fouled by Curry, his second infraction of the half, which forced the coach to sit him. Thankfully for the United States, Durant was the choice to replace him on the floor. Bogdanovic hit the free throw to cut the lead to 6 and then picked up a pretty assist to make the lead just 4. A steal for Serbia led to a three-on-one break and a layup that cut the lead to 2 with LeBron on the bench with Curry. Serbia was on an 8–0 run.
So the United States went back to the hottest hand in the city of Paris, and Durant hit a fadeaway to extend the lead back to 4. Another American backet extended the lead to 6, but a three by Serbia kept the game uncomfortably close.
As the clock went to zero to close the first half, Durant hit a fadeaway with a hand in his face to put an exclamation point on his great first half. The United States led 58–49 and Durant had 21 points without missing a shot (8–8 from the floor, 5–5 from three).
James had 12 points, five assists, three rebounds, and four turnovers without missing a shot in the first half to help lead the United States to its 9-point lead at the break.
What made the U.S. team’s dominant first half more impressive was that neither Jayson Tatum nor Tyrese Haliburton played a single second of the first 20 minutes.
Jrue Holiday opened the second half with a three and then the game started to get physical. James and Embiid got mixed up with two Serbian players, which led to a review to see whether a foul on the play was worthy of being elevated to a flagrant. The foul was indeed made a flagrant, but the United States was able to maintain its lead of 10.
The U.S. team closed the third quarter on a beautiful spinning shot by Edwards to take a 19-point lead to the fourth quarter. Edwards’s shot gave him 11 points, making him the third U.S. player in double figures. James had 18 points in 19:43 through three quarters and Durant had 23 in 12:22 as the United States began to pull away.
Tatum and Haliburton hadn’t played in the first three quarters, but every other U.S. player had scored. The United States shot 66 percent (33 of 50) from the floor in the first 30 minutes; James and Durant were a combined 16 of 17 from the floor.
Durant finally missed a shot two minutes into the fourth quarter with the United States leading by 21. He checked out with five and a half minutes left in the game with his 23 points in 16:44.
James did not check out of the game much. He played a team-leading 26:52 and finished the game 9 of 13 from the floor, scoring 21 points, and led the team with 9 assists and 7 rebounds. Curry knocked down a deep three in the final seconds to make the final score 110–84. He finished with 11 points, and Booker contributed 12 points to the win. Five Americans were in double figures.
Jokic led Serbia with 20 points in 30:45 on the floor. He also led the team with eight rebounds and tied for the team lead with five assists. Bogdanovic scored 14 as Serbia also had five players in double figures.
Serbia made only 9 of 37 three-pointers in the game while the United States hit 18 of 32 from deep. The United States shot 62 percent from the field.
