What we learned as Steph erupts for 36 in Team USA rally past Serbia

What we learned as Steph erupts for 36 in Team USA rally past Serbia originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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Steph Curry’s sensational performance propelled Team USA to an unbelievably epic comeback 95-91 win over Serbia on Thursday at Bercy Arena to reach the gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics where they will play France on Saturday.

Curry came out of the gates on absolute fire and wouldn’t be extinguished by Serbia’s defense that made the United States sweat for 40 minutes. Curry scored 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting, made nine 3-pointers and grabbed eight rebounds. Coming into the semifinals, Curry had scored a total of 29 points through four games and was averaging only 7.3 points.

When Team USA needed a hero to arise, Curry answered the call. His 3-pointer with two-plus minutes remaining gave them the lead and they never looked back. Team USA outscored Serbia 32-15 in the fourth quarter.

LeBron James gave Team USA a triple-double of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and Joel Embiid added 19 huge points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Team USA trailed by as much as 17 points and their largest lead before the fourth quarter was two points.

Here are three takeaways from Team USA’s fourth-quarter push to put them in the championship game against the Olympics’ host team.

The Steph Show Arrives

The wait was worth it. Primarily used as a third option using his gravity as the greatest shooter of all time to get his teammates open looks through the first four games of the Olympics, Steve Kerr didn’t waste any time in getting Curry going from the start. A Curry jumper opened the scoring and was only a glimpse into what was to come.

As Serbia used an array of scorers, Curry was the lone American providing points early on. Three-plus minutes into the game, Curry was responsible for scoring 14 of Team USA’s first 15 points after scoring only seven all of last game two days ago. His 17 points in the first quarter were his most in any game, let alone quarter, during the Olympics.

Curry through the first four games had made a total of five 3-pointers, and then exploded for five in the first quarter Thursday. But Team USA already trailed Serbia by eight points through the first 10 minutes.

By halftime with Team USA trailing by 11 points, Curry was up to 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting was 6 of 9 from 3-point range. However, his teammates accounted for only 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting and made only three 3-pointers on 10 attempts. Curry’s 16 second-half points became more important with each bucket, giving him one of the greatest games in Team USA Olympics history.

The Big Three

And that’s what happens when Curry, James and Kevin Durant are all on the court together for the same team.

Kerr finally put the three faces of a generation on the court together to begin the fourth quarter and the future Hall of Famers carried the torch down the stretch. James, 39, Curry, 36, and the 35-year-old Durant played the entire fourth quarter. In the clutch, it was those three who gave Team USA the win.

Team USA hadn’t failed to reach the gold medal game since James was a 19-year-old playing in his first Olympics all the way back in 2004. He wasn’t going to let that happen again. Durant is the greatest American basketball player in US history and showed why down the stretch.

After going scoreless on one shot attempt in the first half, Durant scored seven of his eight points in the fourth quarter.

MVP vs. MVP

The two players who represented the last four NBA MVP awards, three by Jokic and one for Embiid, went to battle for all four quarters. Since the start of exhibition play, questions continued to be asked about Embiid’s conditioning and fit on Team USA. He quieted his critics.

Embiid outplayed Jokic, too. If it weren’t for Jokic getting into foul trouble and missing shots, the final score likely would have been in Serbia’s favor.

As he always does, Jokic stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points and 11 assists. But he also converted just seven on his 17 shot attempts and missed all six of his 3-point attempts. On the other side, Embiid missed only three shots and made two of his three shots beyond the arc.

While Embiid was plus-15 in 19 minutes, Jokic was minus-10 in 17 minutes. This one went to The Process over The Joker. Get ready for non-stop loud boos to Embiid when Team USA faces France in the championship game.

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