PARIS, France – Serbia played almost the perfect game and it was not enough. The USA played with fire, trailing for most of the game, however, they prevailed and they will play for gold in the Paris Olympics against host France.
The final score was 95-91 as the Serbs tried their best, but the USA escaped with the win.
Stephen Curry scored 17 points in the opening period and finished the game with 36 sealing the deal with two free throws, Joel Embiid added 19 and LeBron had a triple-double with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists.
It was just the fourth triple-double registered in the Olympics, with LeBron having already one back in London in 2012.
Bogdan Bogdanovic had 20 points, Aleksa Avramovic scored 15 points in the first half and Nikola Jokic finished the night with 17 points, four rebounds, and 11 assists.
The perfect storm
The start of the game was electrifying with Curry scoring 14 points in the first 3:48 minutes of action, but Serbia had the lead by seven (25-18) opening the contest by shooting 82%.
With three minutes left in the first period, Curry continued his shooting spree for a total of 17 first-quarter points on 5/7 threes, the USA pressured more, however, Serbia completed the quarter leading by eight (31-23) with Bogdanovic scoring nine points.
Serbia’s advantage extended to 14 points (39-25) after two threes by Marco Guduric and Vasilije Micic and a layup by Nikola Milutinov forcing USA to take the timeout with 7.40 left in the first half.
Nothing changed and a goal foul by Jokic pushed the lead to 17 (42-25) among MVP chants in Bercy.
The USA finally reacted with a 7-0 run to make it a 10-point game (42-32) still Serbia held on with Filip Petrusev and Bogdanovic to get it back to 15 (47-32).
Lebron James with a three and Joel Embiid with a big dunk replied (47-37) and the halftime score was 54-43.
The turnaround
The second half started with a three by Embiid and one free throw by LeBron to make it a seven-point game (54-47).
Thanks to two threes by Ognen Dobric, Serbia kept their distance, but with Curry scoring at will and Jrue Holiday making an open three, the US trimmed the lead to six (65-59) with three minutes left in the third.
That was not the end for Serbia. Micic answered with five points, Guduric converted two free throws and a four-point play after being fouled on a three-pointer plus to make the score 76-61. The third period closed with the Serbs up by 13 points (76-63) after a shot by Kevin Durant.
With the clock ticking, the USA made one more push and trimmed the lead to eight (78-70) with Durant scoring a very hard three and Jokic registering his fourth foul, seven minutes before the final buzzer.
The foul was in favor of Anthony Davis, the US had possession again and Devin Booker with one more three to make it a five-point game (78-73) forcing Serbia to a time-out.
Five more points by Embiid cut the distance to two points (84-82) with four minutes left and finally, LeBron tied the score at 84.
With the game on the line, Filip Petrusev dunked the ball to give Serbia the lead again. Curry took it back (87-86) and then he and LeBron scored in transition to make it a five-point game (91-86) with 1.41 left.
Bogdanovic answered back with a goal-foul (91-89), Durant didn’t miss (93-89), Jokic scored again (93-91), but with seconds left the game was over.