Team USA cruises to semifinal with 122-87 demolition of Brazil

Steve Kerr, Steph Curry & Co. will face Nikola Jokic and Serbia to see who plays in the gold medal game

Steve Kerr and Steph Curry are fond of young Golden State Warriors forward Gui Santos, but they showed no mercy facing his Brazilian squad in the Olympic basketball quarterfinals. Curry and Santos each scored 7 points, but Team USA won over the Brazilians in a 122-87 blowout Tuesday in Paris.

Curry hit two of his three shots and all three of his free throws in his 17 minutes, as the blowout let Kerr give minutes to all 12 of his players. In the first half, it was all about Joel Embiid, who scored 14 points and hit three triples, and LeBron James, who scored 10 points, handed out eight assists, and stole the ball from the overmatched Brazilian team three times.

After leading by 27 points at halftime, Team USA took their foot of the gas a bit in the second half. Brazil nearly doubled their 36 first-half points with a prolific third quarter, outscoring the Americans 35-31. They got a second straight huge effort from former lottery pick Bruno Caboclo, who scored 30+ points again, going 13-for-20 from the floor.

Santos had a block and a steal in an energetic performance where he also committed four fouls. In a game like this, where every player Santos defended was an All-Star, sometimes excessive fouls are just a sign of excessive effort.

Former Warrior Kevin Durant was already the highest-scoring American man in Olympic history, but he passed Lisa Leslie for the overall record with a third-quarter bucket. He finished with 11 points.

The game was moderately competitive early, but Team USA scored the final 15 points of the third quarter to take a commanding lead, putting an exclamation point on their first-half effort when James hit Jayson Tatum, seemingly recovered from the emotional trauma of sitting out Team USA’s first game, for an alley-oop dunk.

Devin Booker was the scoring leader with 18 points and made five threes. James led Team USA with nine assists, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo combined for 22 points 15 boards (7 on offense), and both Derrick White and Jrue Holiday blocked two shots. Anthony Edwards finished with 17 points while nailing three triples. As a team, the U.S. shot 15-for-31, an outside shooting performance that would have made them unbeatable against any opponent.

Now they’ll move on the the semifinals, where Kerr and Curry will face a familiar obstacle: Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić. Team USA defeated Serbia by 26 points in their opening game, but Jokić proved he’s still dangerous with a 21-point, 14-rebound, 8-assist performance in an overtime win over Australia. Serbia came back from 24 points down to defeat the Boomers, indicating that Team USA won’t be able to relax in the semifinal game.

The other semifinal will feature Germany against host country France. Les Bleus defeated the Canadian national team, 82-73, in a devastating game for Draymond Green’s enemies. Dillon Brooks only scored two points, and France succeeded despite benching Rudy Gobert, who was scoreless in just under four minutes of play. That result removes the team who beat Team USA in the bronze medal game at the FIBA World Cup, and provides what might be a full podcast’s worth of content for Green.

Team USA still hasn’t faced much resistance. Perhaps that will change Tuesday at noon against Serbia.