Steph Curry was feeling the heat. The U.S. men’s basketball team trailed Serbia and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić by 13 points in the fourth quarter of their Olympic semifinal on Thursday night after trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half. Their four-straight gold medal streak was hanging by a thread.
It was Curry’s first brush with the unique pressures facing an American basketball program that boasts an all-time record of 142-5 overall at the Olympics, including a 35-1 run since its flop at the Athens Olympics two decades ago. Win, and it’s business as usual. Lose, and risk permanent disgrace. Just ask LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and two-time Olympic gold medalist who has never quite shaken the LeBronze nickname he earned for his peripheral role on the U.S. team that finished third after shocking losses to Puerto Rico, Australia and Argentina.
“I went into this experience thinking that this would be my one and only time to compete in the Olympics and experience this podium,” Curry said Friday. “I didn’t want to be on the [first USA] team since 2004 that failed to reach the gold medal race.
“So all those things that you think about while still trying to have fun playing the game, you know. It’s an interesting dynamic because we all signed up for this, to complete a mission and we’re one game away from completing it and we were being threatened like crazy for 30 minutes yesterday [against Serbia] until we finally figured it out.”
In what U.S. teammate Kevin Durant described as a “divine performance,” Curry poured in 36 points against Serbia, one shy of Team USA’s single-game Olympic record held by Carmelo Anthony, including the three-pointer that gave the Americans the lead for good with 2:24 left in the 95-91 victory. From the brink of humiliating defeat as overwhelming favorites, the Americans are now back on track and 40 minutes away from the ultimate prize in international basketball.
Things won’t get any easier for the United States in Saturday night’s gold medal match against France, who defeated a stingy Germany in Thursday’s first semifinal. Les Bleus are led by a front line that includes 7ft 1in Rudy Gobert, the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and 7ft 4in Victor Wembanyama, perhaps the most promising young player since James entered the professional ranks more than two decades ago. They are an athletic squad loaded with NBA talent who have come close at major tournaments in recent years, including in Tokyo, where they handed the United States their first Olympic loss in 17 years, only to suffer a five-point defeat as they fought back for gold.
“For us, all the staff, players, it’s a dream to be able to play the final in Paris,” said France coach Vincent Collet, who also coached Wembanyama when he played for Metropolitans 92 in the French top flight. “We said that before the [semi-final]I asked the players, ‘Are you going to let the German team steal the final from you?’ They said, ‘No, no way, no way, we’re dying on the pitch, no way.’
Despite all the specific threats posed by Jokić and the close-knit Serbian team, the Americans understand that France will pose a very different challenge in the particularly hostile environment of the Bercy Arena, where the home team will attempt to become the first team to win the gold medal in men’s basketball on home soil since the United States in 1996.
“We expect them to play the game of their lives,” Curry said. “They’re going to feel the adrenaline of home games, they’ve got a lot of momentum coming off these last two games. We’ve got to expect them to play great, but we expect that from ourselves as well.”
Joel Embiid, who scored 19 points against Serbia, can expect the worst. The American center has been booed by the crowd at every touch since the start of the tournament because of his decision to play for the United States instead of France. He, in turn, has enjoyed the negative reception: Embiid was the last player to leave the court after Friday’s narrow escape, repeatedly taunting the crowd with the DX ‘suck it’ chopthe same stunt that earned him a fine last NBA season.
“I’m going to enjoy it,” Embiid said. “They’re going to boo me, I’m going to go back at them and tell them to fuck off. It’s going to be fun.”
France completely reinvented itself after a lackluster group-stage performance, adding Isaiah Cordinier and Guerschon Yabusele to the starting lineup and embracing a more physical style. That was never more evident in Thursday’s narrow semifinal win over Germany. While their flashier NBA stars made just 9 of 32 shots from the floor, it was the less-heralded Yabusele and Cordinier whose combined 33 points made the difference.
“The will to improve, the will to sacrifice for your team, the will to make the next pass, the next play for your teammate, that was always there, but we needed time,” Wembanyama said of France’s on-the-fly transformation. “The intention was always good.”
U.S. coach Steve Kerr said the team got back to the hotel so late after Thursday night’s game that he only had time to watch a replay of the France game and the first half of the U.S. semifinal. He wasn’t able to watch the footage until Friday morning, when preparations for the gold medal game began in earnest.
“It’s very impressive to see how their team evolves, how they change their style in the blink of an eye,” Kerr said. “They’re very physical. They play extremely hard, that’s what you see on the video, how hard they play on both ends. We have to be prepared for that physicality and that strength. And we have to not only match that, but exceed that, and that’s the challenge.”
For Curry, the shock of the semi-final was the perfect preparation for Saturday’s final.
“I think last night will help us because we have to deal with the adversity at the level we did because we know the crowd is going to be loud and annoying to them, as they should be,” he said. “We have to be able to deal with the emotions of it all.
“I’m sure every one of us can think of a building that you’ve been in in your career that’s a hostile environment where no one likes you and no one wants to see you. We have to channel that energy and just be ready for whatever happens.”