WOW! Team USA completed a thrilling, electrifying and rousing 17-point comeback against Serbia led by Steph Curry’s 36-point explosion. Up to this point, he’d been very quiet, verging on anonymity, scoring 7, 8, 3 and 11 points in the prior 4 games. The world’s best shooter and his role on the team were coming into question. Well, he quieted that noise and went nuclear in the opening 4 minutes of the semifinals with 14 points and sustained that pace all throughout the game. Which was necessary because the vaulted 2nd unit was terrible. The depth, their biggest advantage, did very little to aid the comeback.

For once, the moment looked too big for Anthony Edwards. His shot wasn’t falling early and it affected his defensive effort. He gambled multiple times, trying to come up with a steal, and instead let Serbia hit an open 3. Steve Kerr recognized this early and the Ant-Man’s playtime was restricted.

Something similar happened to Anthony Davis. He subbed in early and was immediately called for a cheap foul on Nikola Jokić. This disrupted his flow immensely. The same thing happened in the 2nd quarter and he had to sit until halftime. He played sparingly in the 2nd half with his best offensive moment coming when he picked up the 4th foul on Jokić, early in the 4th quarter, resulting in Devin Booker swishing a 3 directly after.

The other big-man, Bam Adebayo, was less effective than AD, only playing 10 minutes and not scoring.

Derrick White, one of the defensive aces of the team, stunk. His shot wasn’t falling and his effort on defense was lacking, so much so Kerr cut him out of the rotation completely.

The only guy who was able assist in the comeback was Kevin Durant, and even he didn’t have a very good game. With his contributions being limited to scoring 9 points, grabbing a couple of boards and hitting a clutch jump shot with less than a minute to-go. It was mostly the starters, like Curry and LeBron who led Team USA to victory.

LeBron James did a little bit of everything on the way to a triple-double. He scored, including the game-tying layup, rebounded against bigger guys, assisted 10 times, played solid perimeter and post defense and, when provoked by Bogdan Bogdanović, turned it up a notch, igniting the rally. It was also LBJ who attacked the Serbian paint early and often in the 2nd half, resulting in Joel Embiid going crazy.

No one on Team USA has been as volatile as Joel Embiid. He came into camp hurt and had to play himself into shape, while also acclimating to a totally new playstyle and new teammates. At first, it looked like he didn’t belong, with his plodding nature, on a team that wanted to run and play in transition. Next, his defense was called into question because he stayed in “drop coverage” and was repeatedly targeted by the opponent. This reared it’s ugly head against Brazil in the quarterfinals and Embiid was out in the 2nd half. Finally, his erratic effort rebounding and on defense must’ve given Steve Kerr headaches, but Serbia have Nikola Jokić and there was no way Embiid wasn’t going to play.

Joel Embiid was, remarkably, the 2nd leading scorer (19 points) behind Stephen Curry. Hitting shots from all over the floor, including a pivotal 7-0 personal run leading up to LeBron’s game-tying layup. He started slowly, and there was a moment where he might’ve stayed on the bench, for an extended period of time, if not for a productive 2nd quarter that gave him the confidence to dominate in the 2nd half. His mental makeup and resiliency, traits he doesn’t display enough, should be admired. It’ll be fascinating to watch how hostile the French crowd are to him, in the gold medal game, against Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert and Team France.

Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday weren’t in the scoring column much, but played solid defense and found other ways to impact the game. Holiday, particularly, was moving the ball very well, resulting in 7 assists. As long as they keep doing the ‘under-the-hood’ stuff they’ll play against France.

All the credit in the world to Serbia for giving Team USA one helluva game. The first half was a masterclass in how to play international basketball. Their ball movement was exceptional, zipping from player-to-player and always resulting in the right or open shot, which they mostly hit. They also rebounded well, not giving up many 2nd chance points. Another interesting wrinkle was their constant ball pressure, for 90 feet, on the US’s primary ball-handlers, which really messed up how quicky and easily Team USA got into a set. Unfortunately, for the Serbians, their defensive effort and 3-point shooting sharply declined in the 2nd half, leading to a slow disintegration of their lead. In addition to playing a slower tempo. No doubt many of them will feel sick over this result for many years to come. It would’ve been the biggest win in Serbian basketball history.

Team USA are breathing a huge sigh of relief and thanking Steph Curry, LeBron James and Joel Embiid profusely, as those 3 scored 75% of the team’s points. Curry and Embiid, personally, needed these performances, as they’ve had a rocky Olympics. Not a moment too soon either as Serbia nearly put together the perfect mixture of shot-making, rebounding and defensive effort to pull off an historic upset. Steve Kerr is very lucky they won and he won’t be bombarded in the media about his lack of minutes for Jayson Tatum.

Once the game started and the US was down, there was a feeling Steve Kerr was going to have to shorten the rotation. Tyrese Haliburton was never going to play, but it was pretty surprising Jayson Tatum didn’t see the court. His minutes have been unpredictable during the Olympics leading to an unsteady role and lack of rhythm, which is too bad as he recently led the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship and the Olympics should be a capstone to his basketball ascendancy. It probably won’t matter for the construction of Team USA for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, as Steve Kerr might not be the national team coach, but both Tatum and Jaylen Brown have gripes with him and USA basketball. Two guys who figure to be important to USA basketball in the next games. Something to keep an eye on.

Team USA will face host-nation France on Saturday, August 10th (12:30pm) in the gold medal game. The atmosphere is going to be electric! Victor Wembanyama didn’t shoot well (11 points, 4-17 FG, 1-8 3-pt) but controlled the paint for France, while Guerschon Yabusele (17 points) and Isaïa Cordinier (16 points) led them in the semi’s over Germany, 73-69. They haven’t been especially good, yet keep winning. The crowd has been their biggest advantage and provides them with a major boost. It’ll be up to the US to keep them quiet, although that will be nearly impossible without a hot start. A game of this magnitude only comes around every so often and will be a treat to watch. Let’s go USA!