What we learned as Steph erupts for 36 in Team USA rally past Serbia

What we learned as Steph erupts for 36 in Team USA rally past Serbia originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

Steph Curry’s sensational performance propelled Team USA to an unbelievably epic comeback 95-91 win over Serbia on Thursday at Bercy Arena to reach the gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics where they will play France on Saturday.

Curry came out of the gates on absolute fire and wouldn’t be extinguished by Serbia’s defense that made the United States sweat for 40 minutes. Curry scored 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting, made nine 3-pointers and grabbed eight rebounds. Coming into the semifinals, Curry had scored a total of 29 points through four games and was averaging only 7.3 points.

When Team USA needed a hero to arise, Curry answered the call. His 3-pointer with two-plus minutes remaining gave them the lead and they never looked back. Team USA outscored Serbia 32-15 in the fourth quarter.

LeBron James gave Team USA a triple-double of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and Joel Embiid added 19 huge points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Team USA trailed by as much as 17 points and their largest lead before the fourth quarter was two points.

Here are three takeaways from Team USA’s fourth-quarter push to put them in the championship game against the Olympics’ host team.

The Steph Show Arrives

The wait was worth it. Primarily used as a third option using his gravity as the greatest shooter of all time to get his teammates open looks through the first four games of the Olympics, Steve Kerr didn’t waste any time in getting Curry going from the start. A Curry jumper opened the scoring and was only a glimpse into what was to come.

As Serbia used an array of scorers, Curry was the lone American providing points early on. Three-plus minutes into the game, Curry was responsible for scoring 14 of Team USA’s first 15 points after scoring only seven all of last game two days ago. His 17 points in the first quarter were his most in any game, let alone quarter, during the Olympics.

Curry through the first four games had made a total of five 3-pointers, and then exploded for five in the first…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/learned-steph-erupts-36-team-212309735.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-08-08 21:23:09

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.