Team USA Overcomes 17 Point Deficit to Defeat Serbia, 95-91
Team USA outscored Serbia 32-15 in the fourth quarter to escape with a 95-91 win that punched their ticket to a gold medal game matchup with France on Saturday. Stephen Curry scored a game-high 36 points, one short of Team USA's single game Olympics record--but Curry had his best Olympics performance in a highly competitive game, while Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points in a blowout win versus Nigeria in 2012. Curry shot 12-19 from the field (including 9-14 from three point range), and he had a game-high +20 plus/minus number.
Joel Embiid had his best all-around game as a member of Team USA, scoring 19 points on 8-11 field goal shooting. He had seven fourth quarter points. LeBron James logged just the fourth triple double in the Olympics since the 1970s (when rebounds and assists began to be tracked consistently), and he is the only player since the 1970s with two Olympics triple doubles. James finished with 16 points, a game-high 12 rebounds, and a team-high 10 assists.
Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton did not play, while Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, and Derrick White each played 13 minutes or less. With Team USA staring elimination in the face, the players who Coach Steve Kerr trusted the most were Curry (33 minutes), James (32 minutes), Embiid (26 minutes), Devin Booker (24 minutes), Kevin Durant (24 minutes), and Jrue Holiday (20 minutes).
Bogdan Bogdanovic led Serbia with 20 points, while Nikola Jokic had 17 points, a game-high 11 assists, and five rebounds. Aleksa Avramovic scored 15 points on 5-8 field goal shooting, and he led Serbia's long range attack with 4-6 three point shooting. Team USA only outrebounded Serbia 34-33, and Team USA committed 10 turnovers compared to Serbia's seven turnovers.
It was evident from the opening tip that playing Serbia in the medal round is nothing like playing Brazil, the team that Team USA routed in the first game of medal round play. Serbia dominated Team USA for the first three quarters, leading 31-23 at the end of the first quarter and pushing the margin to 17 (42-25) before settling for a 54-43 halftime lead. It must be emphasized that Serbia controlled the game despite Curry putting on an incredible shooting exhibition, starting with 14 points in the first 3:38 of the game and 17 points overall in the first quarter; what wins for Team USA is not three point shooting or highlight plays, but rather stingy defense leading to transition scoring opportunities--and Team USA did not play that way until very late in the game.
Team USA trimmed the deficit to six, 65-59, on a Holiday three pointer with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter, but then Serbia countered with an 11-2 run to go up 76-61 with just :32 left in the third quarter. The momentum shifted at the 7:19 mark of the fourth quarter when Jokic committed his fourth foul while Serbia led, 78-70; in FIBA play, five fouls result in disqualification, so Jokic could not be as aggressive the rest of the way. On one fourth quarter possession, he backed away from Embiid in the post and gave up an open shot rather than risk being whistled for his fifth foul.
James' driving layup tied the score at 84 with 3:41 left, and then after a Filip Petrusev dunk put Serbia back on top Curry drilled a three to give Team USA the lead for good, 87-86. Jokic's layup cut Team USA's lead to 93-91 with :26 remaining, but Serbia made a puzzling decision to let 18 seconds run off of the clock before fouling--and then they fouled Curry, whose two free throws iced the win.
Serbia shot 10-19 (.526) from three point range in the first half, and they made 15 three pointers in the first three quarters--five in each quarter--but did not make a single shot from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter as Team USA belatedly lifted their defensive focus and intensity. There could not be a better example proving the point that Team USA's shooting from three point range is not the deciding factor in these games.
When figuring out what to make of this game, keep in mind that Team USA's roster includes four players from the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team while Serbia's team includes four players who have NBA experience. Jokic is an all-time great and Bogdanovic is a solid NBA starter, but Vasilije Micic has averaged 7.0 ppg in 60 career NBA games and Nikola Jovic has averaged 7.1 ppg in 61 career NBA games.
Here is a fascinating thought experiment: would Serbia have come within five points of beating Team USA if you switched Jokic with any one Team USA player? Keep in mind that 75th Anniversary Team members James, Curry, Durant, and Davis won most of their NBA titles by forming super teams, not by elevating teams without All-Stars. Would any of them even show up for the Olympics if they were told that their team's second best player would be Bogdan Bogdanovic? Curry led an underdog college squad at Davidson so maybe he would accept the challenge, but James, Durant, and Davis are not built like that.
I mean no disrespect to Serbia. In fact, my point is that the Serbian players are better at basketball than they are given credit for being, while American players are overrated. This is not a hot take, or an overreaction to one game. Team USA's game plan for the first 30-plus minutes versus Serbia seemed to be to hope that Curry could
make enough three pointers to overcome their sluggish defense and their
lack of an effective half court offense; in marked contrast, Serbia played a team game at both ends of the court. American basketball--from high
school to college to the NBA--has devolved into an isolation game in
which star players are protected by the officials and in which
principles of team play at both ends of the court are not emphasized
enough. For at least the past 20 years in FIBA play, we have regularly seen that American players who are used to traveling,
palming, and being rewarded with free throw attempts after jumping into
defenders are not nearly as effective when they are not provided with
such leeway. NBA players, particularly American NBA players, rely on rules that favor
offense, and their statistics are inflated by that reliance; think of how often NBA players are bailed out by flopping and flailing. Embiid had an excellent game versus Serbia, but in this game and throughout the Olympics he has often flung himself to the floor--as he does all the time in the NBA--only to watch in exasperation as the FIBA referees refused to bail him out. Embiid has bragged that he would average 50 ppg in the NBA if double teaming were outlawed, but a better hypothetical to ponder is how many points he would average if the NBA stopped rewarding him for falling down.
As I noted in my article about Team USA's performance in the USA Basketball showcase, the popular notion--repeatedly asserted by J.J. Redick--that today's NBA players are vastly superior to NBA players from previous eras does not withstand careful scrutiny. Jokic already has won an NBA championship despite not playing alongside a single All-Star, and now he nearly took down four 75th Anniversary Team members (plus a host of perennial All-Stars) with one NBA starter and two NBA reserves. Either Jokic is the greatest player of all-time, or his Serbian teammates are much better than anyone thinks, or the American players are not quite as good as their press clippings. Again, this is not based on just one game; this is based on watching more than two decades of regression of the American game--with a brief respite when Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd restored order by playing the kind of perimeter defense that is necessary for Team USA to consistently win in FIBA play: Bryant went 36-0 in FIBA play, and Kidd went 56-0 in FIBA play, but before and after their tenures with Team USA the squad suffered losses to teams that looked vastly inferior on paper if one only considers the players' NBA resumes.
Redick and others assert that the supposedly skinny NBA players of the
1990s, 1980s, and earlier would have had no chance trying to compete
against James. If that is true, then why does James need three other
75th Anniversary Team members to barely beat Jokic and--no offense to
Serbia--a bunch of skinny dudes who will likely never make an NBA
All-Star team? I don't doubt that James would put up big individual
numbers in any era, but he would not have won more championships in
earlier eras than he won in his own era, unless you can picture Jokic
and crew beating any championship team from
the 1990s, 1980s, or 1970s. If James needs a team stacked with NBA All-Stars to barely squeak by Jokic and Serbia then James is not beating the 1970s Knicks or Celtics, or the 1980s Lakers, Celtics, Pistons, or 76ers, or the 1990s Bulls unless he has a stacked team.
This close call versus Serbia is just one more example of the extent to which American players who expect to be able to travel and palm the ball while being rewarded with free throw attempts if a defender even breathes on them are not nearly so spectacular when they are expected to play basketball by the written rules and not by the NBA's lenient interpretations of those rules. Remember when Gregg Popovich used to instruct his players to put their hands behind their backs when they guarded James Harden? Popovich was trying to prevent his players from getting into foul trouble based on the ludicrous why that Harden was officiated but--intentionally or not--he was also exposing the extent to which the NBA game is slanted to favor offense.
It is often said that the world has caught up to America in basketball, but that is overly simplistic. It is true that many of the other national teams have improved, but it is undeniable that American basketball has regressed. There is video evidence to demonstrate this. On August 8, 1992, the one and only Dream Team beat Croatia 117-85 to win Olympic gold. Team USA's starting lineup that day was Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, and David Robinson. I realize that half of the people reading this article may not have been alive in 1992, but those of us old enough to have seen all of the Dream Team's games live know the difference between their brand of basketball and the brand of basketball being played by the current version of Team USA. It is fair to say that the Dream Team would have beaten this Serbian team by at least 15-20 points, and probably more. Keep in mind that the Croatian team that the Dream Team thrashed featured three future Hall of Famers: Toni Kukoc, Drazen Petrovic, and Dino Radja. That Croatian team would probably beat this Serbian team. The Dream Team certainly made their share of highlight plays, but they won because of their mastery of basketball fundamentals at both ends of the court: they defended tenaciously, they rebounded, and they punctuated fast breaks with dunks, not "logo threes."
It is undeniable that Team USA 2024 is far from being a Dream Team, let alone matching the real Dream Team, and even though Team USA is (and should be) the favorite versus France it is not at all certain that Team USA will win the gold medal game. France beat Team USA 83-76 in the first game of the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), and then battled Team USA to the wire before falling 87-82 in the gold medal game.
Labels: 2024 Olympics, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry, Team USA
posted by David Friedman @ 1:49 AM
12 Comments:
>Here is a fascinating thought experiment: would Serbia have come within five points of beating Team USA if you switched Jokic with any one Team USA player?
Another question -- what would yesterday's game have looked like if Yugoslavia had not been broken up?
As it is, the US barely won, with pretty much the best it can send.
Now add just Luka Doncic to that Serbian team, and what would the score have been?
Defense is important for Team USA, but this game hardly proves that defense is important than their offense/3-pt. shooting. Team USA has consistently given up way too many points in every game of the Olympics. They're dominating, except this last game vs. Serbia, because of their elite offense. Without Curry's superb 3-pt. shooting, Team USA loses badly probably. And bash Embiid all you want, but he stepped up big time when it mattered the most. Jokic had a ho-hum game. His teammates stepped up big time for him.
Another bizarre coaching game from Kerr, benching his best or 2nd best player, Tatum. Maybe Tatum is injured, I don't know.
I want Team USA to win, but in a way I want them to lose. None of their opps are all that great either.
Serbian players might play well 1 game out of 3 vs. Team USA, but that hardly means they're better than we give them credit for and/or American players are overrated. If Serbian players were better than perceived, there'd be more of them playing in the NBA and/or making AS teams. I saw plenty of travelling from both teams in this game along with plenty of bizarre call or non-calls from the officials. FIBA officials overall aren't that great. But regardless, they officiate differently in probably most of the rest of the world for pro basketball than for the NBA, so the rest of the teams in the Olympics have a big advantage already relative to this.
Team USA did beat this Serbian team by 26 and 26 before this game. If you keep playing the same team over and over, eventually you'll probably lose or the game will get closer. This Serbian would highly unlikely be worse than the 1992 Croatian team.
There were 37 fouls called in this game, which 18.5 average, for 40 minutes. Last year in the NBA, the league average was 18.7 fouls/game, for 48 minutes. So more fouls/minute were called in this game than for an average game in the NBA last season. If anything, players were being rewarded for fouls against them more in this game in the NBA.
Anonymous:
That is an excellent question. My answer is that if you add Doncic to that Serbian team then Serbia would have had a great chance to beat Team USA yesterday.
Anonymous:
Team USA trailed for most of the game despite Curry's torrid three point shooting, and then won late after holding Serbia to no three pointers in the fourth quarter. If that plus all of the other examples that I have presented in 20 years or so of FIBA coverage does not persuade you then you have already made up your mind to not be persuaded no matter how much evidence is presented.
In my article I noted that Embiid had his best Team USA performance.
Jokic's presence and his passing controlled the game for three quarters.
Tatum is not the second best player on Team USA, but it is odd that he has had two DNP-CDs so far.
Underdog teams like Serbia often do not show all of their cards in exhibition games or even pool play. I am not saying that they deliberately held back, but I am saying that is possible because we have seen teams do that before. What we saw yesterday is a more accurate representation of Serbia's full capabilities, and Serbia at their full capabilities came within two possessions of beating a team with four 75th Anniversary Team players plus a host of other All-Stars.
The number of fouls called does not prove how well the game was officiated or even how the game was officiated, because it does not show what kinds of fouls were called (offense or defense), and it does not reflect what calls were not made that would have been made under NBA conditions.
If you watch enough FIBA games then you see that the flop and flail tactics patented by James Harden and Joel Embiid but also used by many other NBA stars are not tolerated.
"Tatum is not the second best player on Team USA, but it is odd that he has had two DNP-CDs so far." --> you often say that the coaches know best on these playing-time decisions, so why not here?
Marcel
Steph curry came up big I figured he too good of a shooter to keep missing.
I think LeBron and Durant been incredible
But this game was about embid showing up in a big game.
He made tough and clutch shots.
And most of them was over jokic
Why are u saying LeBron and kd can't or scares to carry a team like jokic
LeBron has had as much success with the Lakers as jokic has had with the nuggets
A title and conference finals appearance.
That not counting nothing he did in Cleveland or Miami
Stop comparing mere mortals to a mount rushmore player.
Bron won 66 games with Larry Hughes and drew gooden
Jokic beat 2 8th seeds and 2 7 seeds in his title run he only beat a top 3 seed once .
The Serbian team was solid but the notion he carry teams to the promise land or real far
He came up short against the best teams
Anonymous:
I didn't say that Kerr knows best or does not know best regarding benching Tatum. I expressed my opinion that benching Tatum is odd. Do you not find it odd to twice bench a member of the All-NBA First Team who just led his team to the NBA title?
Coaches can make mistakes just like anyone else. In general, coaches know best who to start, who to play, and who to bench because they have observed their players for a long time under a variety of circumstances. Here, this team was thrown together quickly without much practice time and without playing many games.
Also, this is an unusual team that has 12 players who normally start, and Kerr is tasked with dividing five starting slots and 200 minutes (instead of 240 in an NBA game) among those 12 players.
Marcel:
This game was about Team USA playing horrible defense for three quarters but staying close because Curry was very hot. Then, Team USA played excellent fourth quarter defense and Serbia was limited by Jokic's foul trouble. Embiid was missing in action during pool play but it is nice that he finally showed up versus Serbia. Keep in mind that Embiid has a pretty cushy job when he is surrounded by players on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. Jokic is surrounded by players who--other than possibly Bogdanovic--you had never heard of prior to the Olympics and probably still could not name.
LeBron has spent his whole career team-hopping and building super teams. Jokic won an NBA title without a single teammate who has ever been an All-Star--and he swept the LeBron/AD duo en route to winning that title. Every time you say Jokic did not beat anybody to win the title you are actually saying that LeBron and AD are not anybody. You are comparing Jokic's record with no All-Star teammates to LeBron's record with AD and a squad handpicked by LeBron.
LeBron won two titles in Miami with a super team run by Pat Riley. LeBron won two titles in his other 19 seasons as GM/Coach/Player President.
If LeBron had to face Team USA with a bunch of Serbians not name Jokic he would whine to Windhorst and McMenamin and have a whole bunch of excuses for losing.
KD had GSW down 3-1, but lost after falling apart in game seven, and then he ran to GSW to form a super team. Then he tried to form a super team in Brooklyn, and now he is trying to form a super team in PHX.
In contrast, Jokic does not whine, does not make excuses, and does not run to join/form super teams. Plus/minus numbers don't tell everything, but it means something that Jokic's teams typically look like world beaters when he is on the court but like the Washington Generals when he sits.
Marcel
USA started scoring in 4th and that what carried them home especially embid and curry
Serbia has 3 or 4 wide open shots and didn't come through in fourth USA defense was solid but the issue was they couldn't score enough outside of curry first 3 quarters
Bron went to 3 teams that didn't make the playoffs or a 1st round exit the year before
Miami 2009, Cleveland 2011-2014, Lakers 2017-2018
How do u team hop to bad teams?
They got pieces and won titles
Jokic has one title against a bunch of 7 and 8 seeds and u acting like he always carrying teams to the promise land
If Bron was scared of the challenge he would of went to better teams than he "team hopped too"
LeBron can win a title in prime with Denver against similar teams that jokic did
Jokic couldn't win title with Miami Cleveland or lakers
Marcel:
Team USA's pressure defense forced Serbia to rush shots, even the ones that seemed open. Jokic's foul trouble was also a huge factor at both ends of the court.
Your comment about LeBron is disingenuous. LeBron formed super teams each time he won a title, first with Wade and Bosh, then with Irving and Love, and lastly with Davis for the "bubble" title.
As I said before, you can't have it both ways. If LeBron is as great as you say, then it means something that Jokic--with no All-Star teammates--beat LeBron AND Davis. Otherwise, LeBron is not as great as you say.
LeBron is struggling to get to the playoffs with prime Davis, so it is hilarious that you think LeBron could win a title with a team filled with no All-Stars. LeBron and three 75th Anniversary Team players can barely beat Jokic, Bogdanovic, and bunch of Serbians who you can't even name.
Marcel
LeBron played one year with prime Wade the rest of the years he had knee problems and was just a all star
Josh was a nice all star but that wasn't a super steam gs was a super team all dudes was in prime especially the two super stars.
Kyrie was on Cleveland and than they traded for love.
But that Cleveland team wasn't a super team.
Not was Lakers with ad
Those teams were good teams bron elevated to title teams
But all 3 weren't playoff teams before bron got there
He never went to ready made teams
So team hopping narrative makes no sense
Marcel:
Wade finished in the top 10 in MVP voting each of the first three seasons after James fled to the Heat.
Bosh made the All-Star team 11 straight seasons before a blood clot forced him to retire at age 32. Only 28 players in ABA/NBA history have more All-Star selections than Bosh, and he would have cracked the top 20 with just one more All-Star selection, which would have certainly happened had he not had the blood clot.
Irving and Love are future Hall of Famers. LeBron only returned to Cleveland on the condition that they trade future assets to get Love. In short, he left Miami's declining super team for a new super team that he built. He pulled the same thing in L.A., insisting that the Lakers trade future assets to get Davis, who was later named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
The Heat went 47-35 before James and Bosh arrived in a package deal, so you are wrong that James went to a bad team. He went to a solid playoff team and turned it into a super team as he and Bosh joined Wade.
James never stayed with a team and grew alongside his teammates to win a title the way that Jordan did, the way that Kobe did, and the way that Jokic did.
To be clear, James is easily in my Pantheon. He is one of the greatest players of all-time--but we don't have to fall for the narratives that he crafts and are then sent into the world by McMenamin, Windhorst, and others. If beating Golden State clinched his GOAT status--as James has publicly said--then what does nearly losing to Jokic, Bogdanovic, and a bunch of unknown Serbians do for that status? If the Serbians make two more open threes is he the goat instead of the GOAT? Does he become LeBronze instead of being King James?
James and his media sycophants are so over the top that they invite push back to restore sanity.
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