Host nation France pulled off its second consecutive upset by defeating 2023 World Cup champion Germany in the semifinals of men’s basketball at the 2024 Olympics, writes Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press.
Led by Guerschon Yabusele (17 points, seven rebounds, two assists), Isaia Cordinier (16 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals), and a stifling defense anchored by Victor Wembanyama (11 points, seven rebounds, three blocks), France edged Germany, 73-69.
While reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Wembanyama struggled with his shot (4-of-17) for the second consecutive game, his impact was felt all over the court, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
“Of course, it’s part of a dream come true,” Wembanyama said, per ESPN. “We can be part of a goal that we set for ourselves months back. We can write history, even more. A once-in-a-lifetime dream.”
The French national team will advance to its second consecutive Olympic final after finishing with the silver medal in Tokyo three years ago.
In fact, Saturday’s Olympic final will be rematch, with France set to face the United States, which won gold in Tokyo. Team USA trailed by as many as 17 points in its semifinal matchup with Serbia and was down 13 entering the final frame, but mounted a furious fourth-quarter comeback to secure a 95-91 victory.
Stephen Curry (a game-high 36 points, eight rebounds, two assists), Joel Embiid (19 points, four rebounds, two assists), and LeBron James (16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) were instrumental down the stretch for the Americans, while Serbia was led by Bogdan Bogdanovic (20 points, four rebounds, three assists), Nikola Jokic (17 points, five rebounds, 11 assists), and Aleksa Avramovic (15 points, four rebounds, three assists).
In a rematch of the 2023 World Cup final, Germany will face Serbia for the bronze medal on Saturday at 5:00 am ET. France will face the U.S. for gold at 3:30 pm ET.
Curry showed why he is the greatest shooter of all time. Seems Curry and LeBron are becoming close friends during the Olympics.
And Kerr is not a good coach. This is very obvious.
Not a easy thing having the media complain if you don’t use a certain player. Not sure what more Kerr could have done.
Yeah, it’s not like Serbia isn’t good LOL … Jokic is a beast but g’lord, Lebron’s Defense on him with Embiid floating was a great scheme.
Nice to see Kerr finally using the Lebron/Steph/KD lineup … probably wants to save it for France.
Play the 6’9″ switch everything wing who just won an NBA championship by leading his team in rebounds and assists???
You played Devin “I have never guarded anyone since High School” Booker. He lit up the world with a 6pt, 0 rebounds, 0 assist night.
If you actually watched the games you would know that Devin Bookers defense this Olympic run has been excellent and unlike Tatum he is capable of hitting a jumpshot right now
How tall is Booker again?
Played Edwards a lot during bad streaks, and he did nothing. I’m glad Steph scored 34 points, but he didn’t play more than a handful of defensive plays.
What does playing someone “a lot” during bad streaks entail? It’s such a broad criticism, and Edwards hasn’t had many bad streaks this run. He was the best player on the court vs. PR.
Guess Coach wanted to win with offense.
Well, Coach could have put Tatum in for rebounding. We almost lost to Serbia in the last quarter where no US player could get a board.
Thank God he is stepping down after the Olympics (ONE MORE GAME OF THE STEVE KERR ERA!)
Yea don’t let those NBA championships fool you. It’s just amazing what people write in these things
They have been for some time actually
USA is so soft. Not trying to diminish the foreign teams but these are supposed to be some of the best players of all time on team USA
And they think they are better than the Dream Team. Larry, MJ and Magic would make them look like silly little boys.
Dude, international basketball is amazing and the world has caught up. It’s no surprise that the best player in the world along with a talented team that has been playing together their whole lives almost beat the US. Why can’t you all enjoy nice things? I swear the hoopsrumors comment section is worse than YouTube sometimes
I hate this argument, no offense. No the world has NOT caught up. Our coaching staff is foolish and does not understand that when you have guys like Tatum, Brown, Ant, Haliburton, etc. you can switch everything and run a positionless offense and defense. Kerr wants a 3 guard team that kills you on the boards and on D against Serbia and probably France.
Kerr runs 3 guards, when he has only 4 actual guards on the team. That is text book bad coaching. Serbia is big, so Tatum, Bam, AD, Embiid, Lebron should be out there most of the time. Booker does nothing and has done nothing.
This “win” was all about Kerr and his poor game plan and his poor coaching.
Yeah the coach who’s yet to lose a game is terrible. Go make yet another new account to bash Kerr, moron. Kerr is one of the top 3 greatest coaches of all time. It’s not surprising someone as low IQ as yourself can’t comprehend what he’s doing.
So when I say essentially this about GSW I get told by Kerr fans that I dont know ball. In my opinion GSW had a 60 win team last year with the talent they had, instead they end up with 46 wins due to Kerr leaving bad or too-small rotations out there to get cooked, and wind up losing a close game because of it. This is a double edged sword, because normies see the 46 wins and say “GSW is OVER!” when no, they actually do have the talent to still be a top 4 team, its just Kerr’s bad choices holding them back.
Again it’s apparently Steve Kerrs fault Draymond Green missed like 40+ games for no reason
Who is the player named Brown you are referring to?
No one particular country has caught up but as a whole the world is pretty close. The top five players in the world are currently Jokìc, Doncìc, Shai, Embiid and Giannis and they all hail from elsewhere besides the USA. When the ’92 Dream Team was formed they played there were a total of 12 players with NBA experience amongst the other teams, this year there is 69.
Overall? Yes the USA has the best collection of players. The third most populated and richest country in the world obviously would have a better talent pool. If you took an All World All Star team and played them against an All USA All Star team the matchup would be evenly matched. Team USA would have the best depth and Team World would have the best starters
CF I for one am hoping you get the job in 28 – obviously you know more than anyone else
I don’t get why CF has this massive hard on for Devin Booker hate. If you would actually watch the games this entire run his defense has been excellent.
Headline on CBS sports right now is “Why Devin Booker was an unsung hero in Americans’ comeback”
The article says “In the fourth quarter, Team USA extended its defense against point guard Vasilije Micic, with Booker drawing that assignment. It wasn’t true on-ball pressure, per se, but Booker was near Micic after every U.S. score, giving Team USA’s defense an extra second or two to get settled while also forcing Serbia’s offense to start later in the clock. The strategy also prevented Serbia from taking a few extra seconds off the clock by rolling the ball in play, something Nikola Jokic has mastered in the NBA.
Booker’s job wasn’t done there, of course, and he did a great job limiting Micic, who did not score or assist in the fourth quarter having eight points and three assists through three quarters. In turn, after flowing so smoothly, the Serbian attack ground to a halt and had to settle for several contested, late-clock jumpers.”
Just because your guy Tatum had played himself out of the rotation because of his abysmal shooting doesn’t mean you should just start throwing s*** at the wall and hoping it sticks. Actually watch the games or research your takes before you post.
I’m actually not a Devin Booker fan, but he makes sense on this roster as a spacer next to their defenders/playmakers. On the roster, it makes him more essential to play, especially with limits on KD right now, and Kawhi not being there. He has also been able to avoid being a ball stopper, and has been efficient with his touches; Without looking, I think he was like +15ish on the floor today, so I don’t know how you can question why he was on the floor
Wether you like the guy or not to say he’s been anything other than a valuable asset to this team is absurd. It’s annoying when guys like CF come on here with their a$$ backwards comments that are blatantly untrue because they either don’t watch the games or don’t like the player. Booker had clearly has found a roll with the team he was +16 today and played very good defensively. 2 games ago against Brazil he was the leading scorer and hit 5 3s. He’s on the court for because he is playing better than Tatum no other reason.
Social media is a sickness; it creates these elevated egos and entitlement, where people really just say anything with full conviction, and most of it has no basis in reality
What’s worse is that it becomes a narrative b/c of all the parrots out there, like you said that don’t even watch or don’t understand what they watch, spreading propaganda on the biggest propaganda machine in the history of the world
The world has indeed caught up with US basketball but you’re right that we should have gone tall and favored rebounding. Serbia beat us on the offensive board and it was a nightmare US not being able to pull down a board in the 4th quarter I watched. Seemed no one would jump. We just wanted to get back and shoot.
In single elimination games anything can happen its like march madness.
All the other countries have years of chemistry…USA is assembled for a few weeks in the Summer.
Yes some International NBA guys don’t spend all the time with their country team but they came up with them.
There are multiple reasons USA is not as dominant
1. USA best players are all past their prime – LeBron, KD, Steph
2. It is hard for a bunch of players who are used to being the alpha their whole careers needing to take a backseat to other players on the team. That’s why it’s important to have a guy like Derrick White over Jaylen Brown even though brown is better
3. The best players currently in the NBA are not American – Jokic, Doncic, Giannis, and soon Wemby
4. The international game is different – not just the ball and court dimensions that the USA players are not used to, but the fact that there is no defensive three second calls. A lot of Euro guys are great offensively, but not great defensively. When there is defensive three seconds, you need to be amazing on defense to have an impact, now the gap is closed. It also changes how US guys are used to running an offense. The best players are great at timing up when a defensive player needs to leave the paint to avoid being called for three seconds. Now that strategy can no longer be used.
Agree with all you wrote except it wasn’t Derrick over Jaylen. Should have been Jaylen from the get-go as Jaylen made very clear.
Worst take ever.
Almost wanted them to lose so Steve Kerr could explain why a 6’9″ wing who rebounds, plays D and passes was not playing but Devin Booker a guy who scored 6 pts, no rebounds, no assists, 3 fouls and no defense is playing.
USA is so soft and just a Lebron friends league, they are not serious about winning anything. Steve Kerr is a terrible coach and should be peppered with questions why they cannot score against a slow, 2 NBA player team that can do only 2 things well and why he needs Steph to bail out his poor decisions.
But please let the summer of Lebron gets whatever he wants to continue.
I used to like Lebron, I used to stick up for him, but this summer man, I cannot stand the guy and look forward to his son getting toasted by real NBA players and the Lakers exiting the playoffs real quick this season.
Wow, that was your takeaway? Not the fact that Serbia played their asses off and that the US had a comeback for the ages? #armchairexpert
Jovic and Bogdanovic is equal to the team with 10 hall of famers?
Really???
This is what you accept? I dont. I expect more from USA.
Also, the comeback was because they played terrible not because of Serbia. NO international team should be within 20 pts of USA unless its an all star team.
Bad coaching, Bad team construction and just a bad Lebron gets what he wants attitude. They are not serious.
Playing for gold man.
What is your excuse for Germany losing and Canada. They were good teams. Remember when Warriors were given a 14% chance of beating the Celtics and they did it in 6 games.
Ridiculous odds! As a Celtics fan I knew we weren’t ready and that we should have been the underdog.
You seem a little overstimulated. Go for a nice walk. Breathe the fresh air. It is basketball.
I agree, Kerr needs to understand that surrounding Curry by bigs who can space better than tiny short guy guards will mean more points for Steph and more wins for GSW. Kerr is obsessed with playing as many short guards as possible at all times, thats why he and GSW love Podziemski despite Podz having flashed zero elite skills. People bring up how many charges he drew, but considering he posted up in the paint almost every play he was out there, averaging 0.5 charges a game actually isnt a good thing, when the rest of the time he has Embiid, Joker and Giannis raining points on his head at the rim.
Kerr literally played Steph, Klay, Podz and GP2 together last year, plus has stated to the press he doesnt like winning and enjoys losing teams more, he’s said so many disgusting, anti-winning things that Pat Riley or Phil Jackson never said, that almost no pro coach has ever said. He should have been fired the first time he said to the press that winning doesn’t matter to him.
You do realize it’s a 40 minute game, with different rules. Serbia plays a half court game, and international rules means you can defend the paint completely differently. It’s also a different ball, and certain all time great shooters have historically struggled with it, but it hasn’t mattered
Team USA has scored by far the most in this tournament, and had the best margins of victory.
But also, we’re talking about the current reigning silver medalist in FIBA, who added 3x MVP Nikola Jonic to their roster. Serbia is 1 of the best teams in the world, and have been for a long time. Team USA has been together for like 3 weeks. The entitlement is real here
What a game, I love international basketball! Props to Serbia, the time of guaranteed US dominance is over and it’s so great
Steph Curry was the only team USA player who didn’t choke = Steph Curry is the best USA player in the world
You mean other than Haliburton and Tatum who did not play?
Who cares? Curry is better than Haliburton and Tatum combined.
Why are you responding?
He’s been borderline terrible all tournament. He, much more than Lebron, was playing because of what he represents, his name, his first and last Olympics.
Second Olympic games in a row that the US don’t win without Durant, which is the one player international teams have no solution for.
One more game and then we are done with the “legends”. 2028 will be interesting. Hopefully younger, faster and better coached. Maybe they will even get to face a couple of decent teams.
Steph’s gravity helped all his teammates all series long, and then he steps up to not choke in the most important game so far. “Terrible”? lol sure thing man, you definitely dont know ball.
“Double teamed Steph finds an open KD” and you think that’s on KD? Not good analysis here.
You mean best OFFENSIVE player, right?
Great game by Serbia. We’ll played and we’ll deserving of a medal. Probably would have taken the silver if they were on the otger side of the bracket.
This game will be known as the Steph Curry game going forward yet his antics in that first half were what led to Team USA falling behind by so much early. He hits a three and starts dancing around with his teammates on the bench with Serbia literally taking the ball out.
You could just see throughout that first half how much the US sideshow motivated the Serb backcourt even more. Team USA was so lucky that their talent discrepancy showed out in that 4th quarter to prolong their Olympics run.
Sidetopic: If I were the Nuggets GM whose watched some decent role players (Brown/KCP/Green) leave since winning their Finals, I’d be looking to possibly sign some of Joker’s Serbian teammates to come play for the Nuggets. Bogdanovic is already playing for the Hawks but Avramovic played his ass off against some of the best guards in the NBA and more than held his own, he looked like prime Manu out there.
This US team is one of the best rosters of basketball talent that has ever been assembled and Joker just came close to beating them with a handful of fellow countrymen. He’s the best player in the world, Get that man so legit help!
NBA rules and refs are different so it probably wouldn’t work out. The younger players can probably transition like we will see when Topic gets healthy.
“NBA rules and refs are different so it probably wouldn’t work out”
I don’t believe that at all, if you can play you can play. The difference in rules aren’t all that much different at all especially for guards.
3point line distance, no zone, no 3 in the key for either side are pretty big differences along with goaltending.
Refs were letting Jokic get away with a lot of fouls. On one play he had a choke hold on AD and no calls.
@arc, I thought the refs let both sides play physical today which is better for the overall product IMO. The US team’s stars weren’t going to get pampered by the refs and we actually watched multiple traveling calls which is pretty rare in NBA games lol.
You’re making the differences to be bigger than they really are. Those differences for actual professional basketball players would be minimal. They’re not going to affect players over a long period of time, the smarter the player that you are the quicker that you adjust. Veteran professional players would adjust in days.
So Steph danced so much that it motivated the serbians a lot? Weird because thats definitely not quantifiable and he has been doing that for years and he had never had a problem winning lol Also get that man some help? This is fiba, not nba free agency lmao
Its not quantifiable? How about going back and watching that first half again. Team USA’s offense was nothing but Steph shooting threes and a the rest of the US players going ISO with no ball movement. During that same stretch we saw Steph jawing with Avramovic and literally everyone else jawing with Bogdanovic. Serbia was dominating them during that stretch.
“and he had never had a problem winning lol”
Steph is the greatest shooter in history and, YES, disrespecting your opponents does nothing but piss them off and motivate them. If you want to brag about Curry winning then go ahead and mention that he won with three other HOFers in KD,Klay & Dray not to mention many people think Iggy is deserving of the HOF too.
Yeah, he won with one of the most loaded lineups in history and without all of those players playing at elite levels he hasn’t “won” crap since. Couldn’t win one single game against the Kings to make the playoffs.
The guy was phenomenal today but its also ok to say that he can be pretty disrespectful to his opponents. Clearly you don’t care for something like that, I do.
I agree. Curry’s shooting is incredible but his body-motion-gloating is classless (although he’s certainly not the only one.) And chewing that mouthguard outside his mouth is even worse.
@Brabo Here’s a clip of the play that I’m talking about at the 1:18 mark.
link to youtube.com
Jrue drives then dishes to Curry sliding down to the deep corner three spot, directly in front of the bench. Steph lets it fly then does his patented no-look-walkaway as the ball goes in and the bench starts dancing with him. Literally 5 bench players (AD/AE/KD/TH/BAM) are standing over the line and on the court with Steph dancing, while his four other teammates were getting back on defense. The game was still live with Serbia trying to take the ball out over near the basket.
That three gives the US a 15-13 lead right at the 6:19 mark in the first quarter. Serbia than goes on a 18-8 run to finish out the first quarter with the Serbs up 31-23. Then over the next 6 minutes Team USA watches Serbia’s lead jump to 17 at 41-25.
During that roughly 10mins directly after everyone was dancing to Steph’s highlight shot, Serbia dominated them while half the players in the game were jawing with each other as well as Carmelo on the sideline.
This is the stuff that I don’t like seeing from Team USA during that stretch, just have some class and respect your opponents. All of the dancing, shoulder flexes and jawing with spectators just makes the US team look like a bunch of arrogant entitled jerks. Do that in the NBA where no one cares how you act but keep it off the world stage.
I realize my comment above came off harsher towards Curry than intended it to be. I had issue really with how most of our team acted in that 2nd quarter just not with Steph alone.
Go France!
Come on we need the basketball gold! China has two more golds than us.
Let’s see if Avengers can avoid trailing in this game…
Serbia did play well, and should be congratulated. But the USA team and coaching staff didn’t seem to have a plan through the whole tourney. I don’t buy the matchup thing. You don’t sit one of the best players in the game for two entire games, and then start him in another. And there were many other things that were not basketball decisions like sitting Haliburton. If everybody who played had played well, there might be a better justification.
Kerr should have stuck with what’s working for them, with AD-Bam front court. Embiid played good offensively but wasn’t the best defender out there vs serbia..
The GOAT and best player on team USA showed up big time when they needed a hero the most, Steph is different man…
The international rules make the game so much more entertaining. No idea how the Olympic chooses the format for who plays who but USA was extremely lucky to not have to face France, Germany, and Canada before the Gold. All the talk of the world has caught up… yet USA played none of the top teams. Jokic is great but let’s be honest his team was a JV squad. USA was tested and prevailed but the way the match ups panned out robbed us of great games. The USA players may be superior but the NBA as a league not so much.
The Gold Medal game will be a classic. Lebron, Curry, and Durant all do something special to close it out in a game decided by less than 5. If Nkitlina (Limit turnovers and world class defense) and Fournier (catch fire from 3)have great games USA will be in trouble.
Always interesting at Olympics time..team full of all-stars playing with each other not fully committed, not gelling as a team, probably to some extent worried about getting hurt, up against teams that play better as a team, which brings confidence… interesting seeing who stands up…who takes hold of the opportunity… great seeing Steph and k.d. on the same team again
USA should have lost to South Sudan.
You hear me over. USA needs to win this tournament over, do you copy. Do not let USA lose this tournament. They paid $ for the gold this year
All that Nike money has to be good for something.
Let’s see who is gonna stop Wemby…