Team USA avoided a major upset, taking down Serbia 95-91 to move on to the gold medal game.
Stephen Curry had his best performance of the summer, going off for 36 points while grabbing eight rebounds.
“It was only a matter of time before he had one of these games,” LeBron James said. “We could see it every day. He puts too much work in not to have a game like this. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It was the perfect time for Chef to come out and do what he did.”
James finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists while bodying up Nikola Jokić down the stretch to take him out of his game. Joel Embiid added 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
Team USA struggled to match Serbia’s intensity throughout the first three quarters of the game on both sides of the floor, as they were all over the Americans defensively in the halfcourt and knocked down five 3-pointers in each of those periods.
“We knew it was going to be difficult,” James said. “We knew Serbia was going to give us everything they had.”
Bogdan Bogdanović led Serbia with 20 points. Jokić finished with 17 points and 11 assists.
“I am really humbled to have been a part of this game,” Team USA coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s one of the greatest basketball games I’ve ever been a part of. They were perfect. They played the perfect game, and they forced us to reach the highest level of competition that we could find, and our guys were incredible in that fourth quarter and they got it done. I’m so proud of the team.”
