PARIS – The knockout stage run to gold is underway in dominant fashion.
The U.S. men’s basketball team made a statement with a 122-87 win against Brazil on Tuesday night at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Team USA is now through to the semifinals against Serbia. The U.S. defeated them back during the first group phase match of the men’s Olympic tournament, 110-84, and earlier in July during the USA Basketball Showcase, 105-79.
Devin Booker led the U.S. in scoring with 18 points, a tournament-high for the Phoenix Suns star. The 27-year-old was joined by five other teammates – Anthony Edwards (17), Joel Embiid (14), Anthony Davis (13), LeBron James (12) and Kevin Durant (11) – who scored in double digits tonight. Booker becomes the fourth different player to lead in scoring for Team USA at the Paris Games.
Booker noted he found himself open on the backside often thanks to Brazil focusing on two-time Olympic gold medalist LeBron James and first-time Olympian Stephen Curry.
He believes that performance is something he’s looking to bring for the next game.
“(I’m) super confident,” said Booker when asked about the team’s approach at the Games. “It’s understanding who you’re going to war with. We have seasoned veterans – guys that have played on all levels and all different types of atmospheres. I’m trying to lock into the little things and if my time presents itself, I’ll be ready (like tonight).”
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Durant made U.S. Olympic history after dropping 11 points in Tuesday’s quarterfinal. He became Team USA’s all-time leading scorer – male or female – in Olympic competition with 494 points. He surpassed four-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie, who tallied 488 career points during her Olympic career.
“Records are meant to be broken,” Durant, 35, said in response to breaking Leslie’s record. “So somebody will come along and do the same. I’m focused on trying to win this gold.”
Durant, who came off the bench again in the second wave of players, was more impressed with how the team has evolved as a whole since coming into the Paris Olympics.
“I love how we’re defending and talking,” Durant said. “I love how the first unit got us going tonight. It started us off well. And the second unit came in, trying to feed off of that. Teams are going to make runs against us; that’s just the nature of the game. But I like how we stayed poised throughout it all.”
Head coach Steve Kerr agreed with Durant’s sentiment for how the team has been dominating compared to how close some of the games were during the USA Basketball Showcase, an exhibition tour in the lead up to Games against Olympic competition.
“I don’t know that I needed to say anything,” Kerr said in response to the team finding its new groove. “These guys have been around for a while, and when a game is a friendly and not a real tournament game, there’s probably not going to be quite the same level of focus and energy. So these guys have really turned it up. They’ve played really well for these four games. But our two toughest games will be the next two, no matter what happens. So we’ve got work to do.”
Embiid, 30, dropped 14 points on the night, one fewer than his tournament-best, which was scored in the 104-83 group stage win against Puerto Rico on Saturday. He also went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and had seven rebounds.
Embiid was in position to top that but rolled his ankle heading into the half. Kerr confirmed that he’s fine but was forced from playing the rest of the game as a precaution.
The 2023 NBA MVP had been dominating in the time that he did play. Every time he touched the ball, however, whistles came from the heavy French home crowd due to his decision to compete for Team USA. Embiid was eligible to compete for the U.S., France and Cameroon ahead of the Paris Games and decided to represent the red, white and blue after talking with his family.
It didn’t bother Embiid. It did the opposite in fact, as he invited their jeers in good fun.
“Everything is coming together (for Team USA),” Embiid said. “It’s good to have fun, too. And because at the end of the day, you got to take something out of this experience and that’s one of them. The fans want to go at me. I’m going to tell them to.”
And he expects more of it going into the semifinals on Thursday.
“It’s only going to get harder and harder,” said Embiid in response to having to play against Serbia again. “So we can’t take (Serbia) lightly because we beat them by a lot the first few games. It’s going to be a different mindset – it’s win or go home.”
The U.S. faces Serbia on Thursday, Aug. 8 at 3 p.m. ET. The Serbians completed a 24-point comeback win against Australia, 95-90, in overtime earlier tonight thanks in part to three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, who scored 21 points and 14 rebounds.
