Holy shit! What a nail biter.

Team USA is through to the gold medal game after a thrilling 95-91 comeback win led by Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid, capped off with a Kevin Durant dagger and some bogus Serbian late-game management. They wiped out a 13-point fourth quarter deficit with a 32-15 run.

Joel scored 19 points, added four rebounds, and tossed two assists. He played some solid defense on the interior and had some good individual possessions against Nikola Jokic. He really helped get the U.S. some stops and change the flow of the game on more than one occasion. He also did this:

For all of the criticism, Joel showed up when they needed him. Not a perfect game by any means, with a couple of unforced errors on the offensive end and a sequence of bad defensive rebounding late in the fourth quarter. But he hit some BIG shots and contributed to some big defensive stands that let the U.S. back into the game.

Steph went nuclear with 36 and LeBron added 16. They just looked disjointed to begin, with Serbia knocking down everything from three. There was one instance where Jrue Holiday turned a 2v1 into a trailing three and Anthony Edwards had his worst game of the tournament, just a total zero after playing well previously. With the lead cut to six at the end of the third, Steve Kerr put the entire 2nd unit in the game and watched the deficit balloon all the way back up t0 13. Jayson Tatum didn’t play a single minute in a game where switchy perimeter defense was at a premium, and it looked like one of those things where they were always going to get to within arm’s reach, only to watch Serbia knock down another three.


But seriously – they don’t win that game without Embiid. Not a homer take. They went on a 7-0 run when he returned in the first half and they really stopped the bleeding with him in the second half. He finished 8-11 from the floor and 2-3 from three and slowed down Jokic enough that the momentum shifted and everyone settled down a bit. His final act of brilliance was a crushing screen on a Curry three that made everyone realize they were going to complete the comeback and win the game.

Huge performance. Now we get what everyone wanted – USA vs. France in Paris for the Olympic Gold. LET’S GO.