USA advances to gold medal game with improbable fourth-quarter comeback

Down double digits in the fourth quarter, Team USA rallied in a big way to beat Serbia and advance to the gold medal game.

Despite trailing for much of the game, a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback will send Team USA into the gold medal game as they knocked off Serbia 95-91.

It was a herculean effort from a number of players, led by Steph Curry’s 36-point explosion. LeBron James was at the center of everything, including the big comeback, to finish with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Kevin Durant buried a number of big shots throughout to finish with nine points. Joel Embiid had his best game of the Olympics and was big throughout, scoring 19 points.

Anthony Davis was rendered a relative non-factor due to foul trouble as Nikola Jokic’s voodoo magic worked on the officials. He finished with four points and two rebounds in just 10 minutes.

Steph Curry looked as alive as he has all Olympics by knocking down a quintet of jumpers to open the game, including a quartet of 3-pointers for 14 of USA’s first 15 points as part of 17 total first-quarter points. Serbia, though, matched every basket and then some and still led 20-15 after the outburst.

After making just nine 3-pointers in their last meeting against USA in the group stage, Serbia hit five of their first seven attempts from range. As Curry cooled, the rest of Team USA didn’t pick up the slack and Serbia led 31-23 after the first period.

Serbia’s hot shooting continued into the second quarter as USA remained cold and fell behind by 14. A timeout did nothing to slow Serbia’s momentum as an and-one from Nikola Jokic upped the lead to 17.

Embiid knocked down a couple of important baskets, including a 3-pointer, to get the lead back down to 10. Serbia responded with a pair of baskets, though, to get it right back to a 15-point game.

USA tried to make a series of runs, which included a 3-pointer and an and-one from LeBron James, a huge Joel Embiid dunk and a 3-pointer from Curry, but Serbia never relented. As a result, USA trailed 54-43 at the break.

The break did nothing to slow down Serbia as they continued to make it rain from three. Curry, though, also remained hot to keep it a single-digit game.

While USA did briefly cut the deficit down to six points, Serbia closed the quarter strong and pushed the lead right back to 16 points after a four-point play late in the period and eventually carried a 13-point lead into the fourth.

USA’s comeback really kicked into gear, though, after a six-point possession with 3-pointers from Kevin Durant and Devin Booker sandwiching a Nikola Jokic foul, cutting the lead to five points.

Team USA continued to turn it up and tied the game on a LeBron basket. After an initial response from Serbia, a 3-pointer from Curry gave USA the lead. Layups from LeBron and Curry in successive possessions gave USA a 91-86 lead with just over 90 seconds remaining.

The last big shot came from Durant with 30 seconds remaining to put USA up four points.

USA will meet the hosts France in the gold medal game on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. PT.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.