Two nights after defeating the Australian National Team in a closely contested game, USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team (3-0) went up against the Serbian National Team in the fourth of five pool play games before the eight-team knockout bracket for the gold medal.
Head coach Mike Kryzyzewski once again had Klay Thompson, per Thompson’s request prior to the last game, come off the bench. However, fellow Golden State Warriors teammate Kevin Durant got the start again at small forward, to go along with Kyrie Irving at point guard, Paul George at shooting guard, Carmelo Anthony at power forward, and DeMarcus Cousins at center.
1st Quarter – Strong Start
Durant got USA on the board quickly again, getting fouled from beyond the arc and nailing all three free throws, then dished to George in the corner for three more.
Cousins got a steal and made this beautiful spin near halfcourt for the dunk and Serbia took a timeout, their head coach picked up a technical, and Durant hit the free throw to go up 9-0 out of the gate.
But Milos Teodosic fed Nikola Jokic down low for a bucket at the rim to break the ice for Serbia.
Cousins added a block, a steal, and an assist to George for a touchdown dunk, then Klay checked in with 5:14 remaining.
Thompson hit his first shot on a catch-and-shoot from distance with 4:55 remaining to give the United States a 17-5 lead.
After rebounding a miss from Serbia, Klay brought the ball up, drove in, and fed DeAndre Jordan for an alley-oop dunk.
Jordan returned the favor with a steal, then a full-court pass for a Jimmy Butler bucket at the rim, then Butler stole the ball again, and eventually Draymond Green drove in for a lob to Jordan for another alley-oop, forcing Serbia to call another timeout as USA raced ahead, 23-5, with 3:26 to play.
Closing out the quarter, Green and Thompson both missed threes, former Warriors Nemanja Nedovic missed, and Klay dribbled in to find Butler for a three.
Draymond had the ball slip out again on a dribble, but pulled down a rebound on Miroslav Raduljica’s missed jumper, nearly blocked Raduljica and reacted, resulting in a whistle.
Everyone thought Green had drawn a technical, but it was assessed to Team USA’s bench. Still, that was two technicals in a row as Jordan had just gotten one prior to that arguing for a call, and Serbia pulled to within 27-15 as DeMar DeRozan missed a jumper at the buzzer.
2nd Quarter – Klay Off-Kilter
Klay started the second quarter, but short-rimmed a dribble-and-pop against Serbia’s 3-2 zone. Nedovic answered with a left-wing swish from deep.
Thompson came back with a nice drive and a reverse flip pass to Jordan for a layup.
Later, Klay drove in, upfaked, drew contact, but didn’t get the call as the shot fell short, but Durant forced a backcourt call. However, Irving couldn’t get the ball in, got whistled for a five-second call, and Teodosic hit a three from the top. Just like that, Serbia was now within 31-23 with 7:17 to go.
After a Teodosic-to-Jokic touchdown dunk to make it 40-31 with 4:01 left, “Coach K” decided not to call timeout, George could be seen throwing his hands up from the corner, not knowing what play USA was going to run, but Kyrie bailed them out with a driving banker.
“KD” couldn’t get going and couldn’t even get shots up. The one he did was after the whistle, with the shot rattling in, but the FIBA official waving the shot off for a blocking, not shooting, foul.
Coach K re-inserted Thompson with 1:34 remaining, and Durant hit a deep right triple thanks to a pick by Cousins, however, Klay missed the next three-point try, wide open from the left corner.
Raduljica came back with another inside bucket in transition…
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…then Thompson drove in, pivoted, and back-rimmed the fade-away.
Cousins drew a pushing foul turnover on Raduljica and, with 3.6 seconds to play, Durant got the inbound, advanced the ball to George, who advanced to Klay.
With just a couple ticks to go, Thompson inexplicably gave an upfake and scooped the ball in on the right baseline for a layup, but it was just after the buzzer. Klay headed to the locker room exasperated, his hands on his head.
USA took a 50-41 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – Lead Holds Up
Durant led off the third with a steal that ended up a nice fling pass inside late in the shotclock by Cousins to Anthony at the rim, but Raduljica made an impressive one-handed putback dunk off a missed three by Teodosic.
KD got fouled on the next possession, split the pair, and USA went back up, 53-43, Raduljica picking up his fourth personal foul.
Unaffected, Bogdan Bogdanovich swished a trey over Durant, but later KD couldn’t catch a pass from Cousins after DeMarcus retrieved a lost dribble by Irving, the pass a bit behind Durant.
Out of a timeout, Teodosic hit a three and Serbia closed in, now down just 65-60.
Jordan got fouled a lot, hit a few, blocked another Nedovic drive, but got fouled on the other end, then got a dunk, and later hit two free throws, the first banking in, and USA appeared to be on the cusp of pulling away, up 71-60.
Jokic made a bad pass and Butler closed out the third with a stepback three, but missed front rim, and USA held a 72-62 lead.
4th Quarter – Teodosic And Jokic Lead Comeback
Jokic got Serbia off to a great start of the final frame with a swish from the top, and the fouling of Jordan continued, but Jokic got another feed inside, as did Marko Simonovic and, with 8:02 remaining, Durant once again looked at the ball and lost his man, Simonovic cutting backdoor to cut USA’s lead to just 75-70.
Later Teodosic hit a three, Raduljica made an amazing double pump fake on Cousins inside, but Durant got a dunk from a baseline inbound to give USA an 83-75 lead.
But KD couldn’t string anything together as he missed a right-wing triple catch-and-shoot, although Cousins battled for the rebound and, shortly thereafter, George picked up a loose ball under the hoop for a put-in.
Later George would haphazardly gamble on a right swing pass, which allowed Stefan Markovic an open three from the right corner to make it 87-82, United States, approaching four minutes to play.
George answered with catch-and-pivot triple on the left wing, but Jokic struck again moments later, hitting a catch-and-shoot bomb over Cousins.
After Serbia’s center Raduljica fouled out, Coach K inserted Green at the small-ball “five” spot, but with 2:34 to go, Teodosic missed a reverse layup and Draymond was too late to get back in the paint to help on Jokic’s putback.
Anthony, the hero against Australia from two nights ago, went to work on the left mid-post and drew an “and-one” foul on a made jumper, but missed the free throw. Serbia called timeout as USA held a 94-87 lead.
Durant messed up on the defensive end again, as Bogdanovic up-faked from beyond the arc to create a seam to laser a pass into Jokic and KD was late to react, fouling for the “and-one”. However, Jokic missed the free throw and USA clung to a 94-89 lead with 1:56 remaining.
“Melo” missed a turnaround from the right baseline, but Bogdanovic missed an open three on this incredible feed by Teodosic:
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@Tjonessltrib @sam_amick pic.twitter.com/7MFKRRAPs2
— Q (@Quinceyjakarii) August 12, 2016
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However, the ball caromed around and Irving ended up fouling Teodosic back out on the right wing where the play had originated.
Teodosic made both free throws with 1:18 to play, Serbia now down 94-91, then Kyrie’s late shotlock drive — with stagnant USA offense, no doubt — was short off glass, a shot he had been making all night.
Green closed out beautifully on a Jokic mid-post from the left block, the banker going too hard, but George’s runner was an airball.
George managed to grab the loose ball and fired a pass to Durant from the right arc, but KD missed only his third three-point attempt of the night, and Serbia called timeout with 11 seconds to go.
USA gambled again and left Bogdanovic wide open from the left stripe, but he missed too hard, Durant grabbed the board while falling out of bounds, and threw the ball at a Serbia player’s leg as the final buzzer sounded.
Team USA escaped with a 94-91 win. Six Americans scored in double-figures, led by Irving’s 15. Jokic scored 25 points on 11-for-15 field and Teodosic added 15 points and 6 assists on 4-for-7 downtown.
Meanwhile, Durant tallied 12 points on just 4 field goals, 6-for-7 from the line, and 5 rebounds. Green was scoreless in 13 minutes of play and Thompson shot just 1-for-6 for 3 points to go along with 3 assists.
USABMNT (4-0) will face France in two days. A win will secure the Number One seed from the group pool play.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @marcelotavela)
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