Stephen Curry admitted that Team USA did not play like they were supposed to but revealed that their timeouts stayed ‘eerily calm’ nevertheless. He called the semifinal against Serbia special and detailed his mentality after previously struggling in the Paris Olympics.
Stephen Curry played his best game in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games when Team USA needed it the most. Despite trailing by as many as 17, the tournament favorites managed to come back and ultimately defeat Serbia in the semifinal.
After previously averaging just 7.3 points per game and shooting three-pointers at just 25% accuracy, Curry exploded against Serbia, amassing a whopping 36 points on efficient 12-for-19 shooting.
The Golden State Warriors superstar made 9 triples in 14 tries, just one make short of an Olympic record that belongs to his teammate, Kevin Durant.
“When you have life on defense, it usually fuels your offense. You gets stops, and the game starts to connect. They came out and his some amazingly tough shots in the first half. We have to give credit – they are a very good team. It’s hard to beat a team three times and come back the way we did. I’ve seen a lot of Team USA basketball, and that was a special one,” Curry said after the game.
Despite his previous struggles in the Paris Olympics, Curry brushed it off like it had never happened. The secret behind it? Just staying true to your craft.
“Just whatever the game asks for it. I haven’t had that many opportunities, I haven’t shot the ball well the whole tournament, but it doesn’t waver your confidence to meet the moment,” he explained.
“I had some great looks to start the game, knocked them down, kept the rhythm flowing. Then the one in the fourth quarter, Joel set a great screen. Thankfully, they didn’t call that flop because it was bad,” Curry said. “Knocking down a big shot like that – you live for those moments! It doesn’t matter if you shoot three times or however many I shot tonight, you stay calm.”
Serbia started the game on a roll, hitting six three-pointers in the first quarter and leading by double digits at halftime. Team USA was down by 13 after three quarters.
it some tough shots?’ That first four minutes of the fourth quarter changed everything,” the superstar guard said. “We’ve been talking about it our whole prep – our defense, defense is going to fuel this. We’re going to score enough points, but can we get enough stops against whoever we’re playing? For three quarters, we didn’t, and we finally figured it out.”
Team USA used all two of their timeouts in the first half but none in the second. Stephen Curry revealed that despite having a substantial deficit, the mood was otherwise calm in the Team USA camp.
“Eerily calm. No panic, really. We were all over the place on the court, but there was a lot of good, positive self-talk on the bench. At halftime, we knew what we needed to do. You just keep telling yourself that until the final horn. Whether you get it done or not, that’s what basketball is,” the player said.
“We had a lot of confidence that we could get the right combination on the floor for this particular game to turn it, and that fourth-quarter start, that five-minute lineup I talked about, it just flipped the energy defensively,” he continued. “And then we capitalized off of it.”
Against Serbia in the semifinal, it was Curry, scoring 36 points. Against Serbia in the group stage, it was Kevin Durant leading the team in scoring with 23 points. Against South Sudan, Bam Adebayo was the team’s highest scorer, with 18 points in his account.
Against Puerto Rico, Anthony Edwards had his best game with 26 points. Against Brazil in the quarterfinal, it was Devin Booker who led the team in scoring with 18 points.
“That’s the beauty of Team USA and FIBA and this whole experience,” Curry said. “Every game has been somebody different. It’s going to be somebody different, with, hopefully, everybody contributing on Saturday.”
“Hopefully, we have another win on Saturday, and you can look back at this game as the one that challenged us and tested us and the one you will remember just because of the circumstances of being down the entire game and having to come back,” Curry concluded.