Paris 2024: Curry shines against Serbia and Team USA advances to play for gold against France

Golden State Warriors point guard, Stephen Curry made his intention clear today: he wants the gold medal. The NBA legend, in his Olympic Games debut,starred in a historic 36-point performance in the U.S. comeback win over Serbia (95-91) on Thursday in Paris, and will face France on Saturday in the final of the Olympic men's basketball tournament.

The United States will play for its fifth consecutive medal against the host of the Games, which beat world champion Germany (73-69), in a vibrant and close game that was defined in the final seconds.

The self-styled 'Avengers' reunited after a fourth-place finish at the 2023 World Cup due to the initiative of LeBron James, and won their previous four games in Paris 2024 with ease, including the first of the tournament against Serbia itself (110-84).

However, this occasion was different. The Balkan team, led by a superb Bogdan Bogdanovic and the warrior Nikola Jokic, learned from their mistakes to come close to what would have been the first victory over the United States in a Games since the semifinals of Athens 2004, when Argentina made history by taking the gold medal against the American Dream Team. Since then, only wins and gold medals.

Overall, Serbia's performance was at a high level,with Jokic tallying 17 points and 11 assists, while captain Bogdanovic reached 20 points.

Survival by Curry

The United States started with Curry's best performance in the tournament, with one of his streaks that have made him a legend: 14 points with four three-pointers in four minutes.

The good news for Serbia was that it survived without a scratch. Better yet, it did so without Jokic warming up, to lead by eight at the end of the first quarter (31-23).

With the lead stretched to 16 points, their chances of pulling off the big upset hinged on maintaining their high scoring rate - 10/19 on three-pointers at halftime - and the defensive trap into which the NBA stars had fallen.

On the U.S. bench Steve Kerr was looking for solutions with his prestigious assistants, Erik Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue. Meanwhile, Jokic finally entered the game with a block on LeBron and a 2+1.

However, despite the efforts, the United States could not get anything going and only stayed in the game thanks to the great effort put in place by Curry, who finished the first half with 20 points, almost 50% of the total scored by his team.

LeBron completes the comeback

The King, who wore a band-aid near his left eye due to a blow he suffered in the fourth quarter, began to get on track, helped by Curry, who kept his streak alive to leave the deficit at 11 points at halftime (54-43).

In the second half, the Golden State Warriors point guard continued his work keeping his team alive, but Serbia had many more arguments, with a stifling outside lineup on defense and lethal on offense to take a 13-point lead before the last quarter after a triple with an extra free throw by Marko Guduric.

However, USA managed to reverse the situation, led by LeBron (16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists), who evened the score with a key penetration three minutes from the buzzer; as well as Joel Embiid who began to carburize and contribute points, and Kevin Durant who was present in the decisive moments.

Between them and Curry, they gave the boot to Serbia, who went from being ahead 35 minutes before the buzzer to end up losing in the end, so close to achieving eternal glory.