US Men's Basketball Team Will Face France for Olympics Gold Medal

Down by 11 in the fourth quarter, against what looked like overwhelming odds, the US Olympic men's basketball team got a spark.
Six points in two seconds.
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker provided that wild sequence to start the comeback, Stephen Curry had a scoring night like almost none other in US Olympic history, and the Americans will play for gold at the Paris Games. Curry scored 36 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:16 left, and the US beat Serbia 95-91 in a semifinal classic on Thursday night, The Associated Press reported.
LeBron James had the fourth triple-double in Olympic history for the US, which trailed by 17 points in the first half and 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.
“I've seen a lot of Team USA basketball,” Curry said. “And that was a special one.”
Serbia led by 11 with 7:19 left. The rest of the way, it was all US. The Americans won a game where they led for 3 minutes, 25 seconds. Serbia led for 35:12 — nearly 90% of the game.
But it’ll be the US against host France for gold in a dream matchup for the host nation on Saturday, while Serbia will face Germany earlier Saturday for bronze. The gold-medal game is a rematch from the Tokyo Games three years ago, where the Americans prevailed 87-82.
“I’m really humbled to have been a part of this game," US coach Steve Kerr said, tipping his hat multiple times to Serbia. “It’s one of the greatest basketball games I’ve ever been a part of. They were perfect. They played a perfect game. Our coaches were saying Villanova-Georgetown, for all of our older readers and viewers out there.
"But 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.”
Joel Embiid scored 19 points on 8 for 11 shooting and James added 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for the US, which is now assured of its 20th medal in 20 Olympic appearances.
“Joel was everything," said James, who has two of the four triple-doubles in Olympic men's history; he also had one in 2012, while the Soviet Union's Aleksander Belov in 1976 and Slovenia's Luka Doncic in 2021 had the others. “Made every big shot.”
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 20 points for Serbia, which got 17 from Nikola Jokic and 15 from Aleksa Avramovic. The Serbians were 0-3 against the US this summer, getting blown out in the first two meetings and then looking poised for a win of their own on Thursday.
The whole game changed in the fourth after a wild sequence saw the US score six points in two seconds. Durant made a 3-pointer while Anthony Davis was getting fouled. The US got another possession because of the foul, and Booker immediately 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 US 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.
Curry's 36 points were the second-most in a game by a US men's player in Olympic history, one shy of Carmelo Anthony's record 37 against Nigeria in 2012. And Anthony, sitting courtside, was Curry's biggest cheerleader. When the Americans tied it with about 3:35 left, Curry gave Anthony a big smile. When the go-ahead 3 rattled home, Anthony leaped from his seat. And when it was over, the two shared a long embrace.
“That was a godlike performance," Durant said of Curry.
Serbia coach Svetislav Petic kept saying the same thing all summer, that the team the US put together for the Paris Games was better than any in Olympic history. Even the Dream Team, he insisted. His mind wasn't changed after this one.
“They're that good,” he said.
A barrage of Serbian 3-pointers had the Americans squarely on the ropes, until the game changed in the fourth. But in the end, the US improved to 144-6 all-time in Olympic play, 63-4 since NBA players were added to the Olympics in 1992.
“Perseverance, hard work dedication, Chef Curry and Joel ‘Process’ Embiid,” James said. “Big-time win for us. We knew we were going to be challenged. We knew it was going to be the toughest game to date. Total effort.”
Gold is the goal, but that didn't keep the US from celebrating upon returning to the team hotel. Down 42-25 at one point, down 11 in the fourth, the Americans outscored the Serbians 32-15 in the final quarter.
“I know we want to win the gold, but you've got to celebrate the small moments, too,” Durant said in a video distributed by USA Basketball well after midnight as he grabbed a postgame meal next to his mother, Wanda. “Guarantee you, everybody in here, they'll never forget this night. Everybody in here will remember this night for the rest of their lives. That's how special this is.”
The comeback kept Durant’s hopes of becoming the first four-time Olympic men’s gold medalist very much alive and gave the US a chance to return to the international basketball mountaintop. The Americans were fourth at the World Cup last summer, a result that spurred some NBA stars like James and Curry to be part of this team.
And of all the US semifinal moments, this was like few others. The four-point final margin was the second closest in American history in the Olympic semifinals; the US beat Lithuania by two in the 2000 semifinals in Sydney, on the way to gold there.
They're one win away from another.
“I'm 39 years old, going into my 22nd season, I don't know how many opportunities and moments I'm going to get like this to compete for something, compete for something big and play in big games,” James said. “And tonight was a big game.”

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”

US Men's Basketball Team Will Face France for Olympics Gold Medal