In what was heralded as a battle between the ultimate favorite for the Olympic gold medal and one of the main contenders for a place on the podium, Team USA crushed Serbia 105-79 in an exhibition matchup at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
The USA’s hot three-point shooting propelled the US Team to another easy win, after their 98-92 victory over Australia on July 15. Stephen Curry led the way with a team-high 24 points off 6/9 3-point shots.
Bam Adebayo scored 17 points, along with 8 rebounds and 3 assists in 18 minutes, and Anthony Edwards added 16 for the winning side. Anthony Davis recorded 6 blocks, coming close to his all-time personal best (7).
LeBron James added 11, while Joel Embiid had 8 points, 8 boards and 3 assists. Nigel Hayes-Davis played 3 minutes and went scoreless, while Kevin Durant supported his teammates from the bench.
Nikola Jokic racked up a double-double for Serbia with 16 points and 11 rebounds, but he dished out only 2 assists in 28 minutes of action. Aleksa Avramovic scored 14, Filip Petrusev 11 and Ognjen Dobric 10 for the European outfit.
Vasilije Micic was held down to 8 points on 2/8 FG, but Marko Guduric stood tall amassing 8 points, 3 steals and 3 assists.
The two sides were tied at 29 apiece after one quarter. Steph Curry scored 9 points at the beginning, but Aleksa Avramovic’s 8 points and Nikola Jokic’s 6 points and 5 rebounds helped Serbia even out of the contest. Serbia counted 6 assists and only 2 turnovers after the first 10 minutes, which not only helped them stay in contention, but further allowed them to get a 6-point lead (34-28) early in the second quarter.
However, Steve Kerr’s side responded by closing the gap and then increasing their lead to nine (49-40) off the back of two triples by Curry and Edwards. Anthony Davis went off on a block spree, stopping three Serbian possessions in a row, while Bam Adebayo converted his attempts from the low post to hand his team a double-digit advantage (59-45) at halftime.
Serbia relied heavily on their big men, predominantly on Jokic and Filip Petrusev. The Balkan side scored 26 of their 45 half-time points in the paint, as opposed to only 14 by the US squad.
Serbia’s woes (4/15) from downtown, as opposed to Steph Curry’s strakiness that raised his team’s percentage to over 50% (8/15), was followed by a 15-0 run by Team USA that made it 71-45 for the 2021 Olympic gold medalists with six minutes left to play in the 3rd quarter.
USA led 83-58 after 30 minutes, not putting the gas pedal down. Steph Curry hit his 6th 3-pointer to make it 95-66 for the US side with six minutes left, while LeBron added more fuel to the fire with several highlights.
Team USA is now heading to London for two more exhibition games, against South Sudan and Germany. Serbia is moving back to Belgrade to prepare for the matchup against Greece on July 22.