Current:Home > StocksUS men’s basketball team rallies to beat Serbia in Paris Olympics, will face France for gold medal-LoTradeCoin
US men’s basketball team rallies to beat Serbia in Paris Olympics, will face France for gold medal
View Date:2024-12-24 09:29:26
Want more Olympics? Sign up for our daily Postcards from Paris newsletter. Follow along for live updates from today’s events.
PARIS (AP) — They scored six points in two seconds. And just like that, against what looked like overwhelming odds, the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team was on its way.
To a comeback. To a win. And to another Olympic gold medal game.
Stephen Curry scored 36 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:16 left, and the U.S. will play for gold in the Paris Olympics on Saturday night after beating Serbia 95-91. The U.S. trailed by 17 points in the first half, plus faced an 11-point halftime deficit — the biggest one successfully overcome by an American team since NBA players were added to the Olympic mix in 1992.
Serbia led by 11 with 7:19 left. The rest of the way, all U.S.
It’ll be the U.S. against host France for gold in a dream matchup for the host nation on Saturday night, while Serbia will face Germany earlier Saturday for bronze.
The whole game changed in the fourth after a wild sequence saw the U.S. score six points in two seconds. Kevin Durant made a 3-pointer while Anthony Davis was getting fouled. The U.S. got another possession, and off the inbounds Devin Booker made another 3-pointer.
Just like that, a 78-67 lead for Serbia was down to 78-73. The comeback was on, and Curry’s 3 put the U.S. up for good. He added a pair of free throws with 8.2 seconds left to make it a two-possession game and the Americans escaped.
Joel Embiid scored 19 points and LeBron James added 16 for the U.S., which is now assured of its 20th medal in 20 Olympic appearances.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 20 points for Serbia, which got 17 from Nikola Jokic and 15 from Aleksa Avramovic.
Serbia coach Svetislav Petic kept saying the same thing all summer, that the team the U.S. put together for the Paris Games was better than any in Olympic history. Even the Dream Team, he insisted.
A barrage of Serbian 3-pointers had the Americans squarely on the ropes, until the game changed in the fourth. The U.S. improved to 144-6 all-time in Olympic play, 63-4 since NBA players were added to the Olympics in 1992.
Catch up on the latest from Day 13 of the 2024 Paris Olympics:
- Basketball: Stephen Curry scores 36 as U.S. men’s basketball team rallies past Serbia, setting up gold medal game against Victor Wembanyama and France.
- Track and field: Noah Lyles finished third in the Olympic 200. Then he revealed he had COVID. What we know about his illness.
- Keep up: Follow along with our Olympics medal tracker and list of winners. Check out the Olympic schedule of events.
The comeback kept Kevin Durant’s hopes of becoming the first four-time Olympic men’s gold medalist very much alive,
And of all the U.S. semifinal moments, this was like few others. The four-point final margin was the second closest in American history in the Olympic semifinals; the U.S. beat Lithuania by two in the 2000 semifinals in Sydney, on the way to gold there.
___
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
veryGood! (685)
Related
- Georgia remains part of College Football Playoff bracket projection despite loss
- China holds major financial conference as leaders maneuver to get slowing economy back on track
- SoCal's beautiful coast has a hidden secret: The 'barrens' of climate change
- Maine mass shooting may be nation's worst-ever affecting deaf community, with 4 dead
- Ex-Marine misused a combat technique in fatal chokehold of NYC subway rider, trainer testifies
- China fetes American veterans of World War II known as ‘Flying Tigers’ in a bid to improve ties
- Three decades later, gynecologist is accused of using own sperm to inseminate patient
- Willie Nelson looks back on 7 decades of songwriting in new book ‘Energy Follows Thought’
- How Ben Affleck Really Feels About His and Jennifer Lopez’s Movie Gigli Today
- Iran arrests rights lawyer after she attended funeral for girl injured in mysterious Metro incident
Ranking
- Will Trump curb transgender rights? After election, community prepares for worst
- More than 70 people are missing after the latest deadly boat accident in Nigeria’s north
- Takeaways from AP’s reporting on Chinese migrants who traverse the Darién Gap to reach the US
- Death toll lowered to 7 in Louisiana super fog highway crashes involving 160 vehicles
- Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas says he was detained in airport over being ‘disoriented’
- As economy falters, more Chinese migrants take a perilous journey to the US border to seek asylum
- The Nightmare Before Christmas Turns 30
- Ohio woman accused of killing 4 men with fatal fentanyl doses to rob them pleads not guilty
Recommendation
-
Taylor Swift Becomes Auntie Tay In Sweet Photo With Fellow Chiefs WAG Chariah Gordon's Daughter
-
Woman set for trial in 2022 killing of cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson: Here's what to know
-
Olympian Michael Phelps Expecting Baby No. 4 With Wife Nicole
-
Adele Pays Tribute to Matthew Perry at Las Vegas Concert Hours After His Death
-
It's cozy gaming season! Video game updates you may have missed, including Stardew Valley
-
What Kirk Cousins' episode of 'Quarterback' can teach us about parenting athletes
-
Bangladesh top court commutes death sentences of 7 militants to life in prison for 2016 cafe attack
-
These Revelations from Matthew Perry's Memoir Provided a Look Inside His Private Struggle