Was Team USA vs. Serbia the greatest baskeball game ever played?

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PARIS — How are you aware while you’ve simply seen one of the best basketball sport of your life?

How do you are taking all of it in?

Is it the emotion of the second? Is it the standard of play or the circumstance concerned?

Initially, I didn’t actually look after the matchup of Group USA and Serbia within the semifinal sport of the lads’s Olympic match. I wasn’t invested in it emotionally. I simply thought, like most individuals, that this is able to be simple. Even with the nice Nikola Jokic enjoying for Serbia, the People would do what the People normally do in Olympic basketball. Make it apparent.

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However as an alternative, we received a four-part sequence, a future documentary, a film possibly, an on-court spotlight of a sport, of any type, at its biggest on the Bercy Enviornment on Thursday night time right here. Because of this the Olympics are completely different and higher than anything we watch all year long.

As a result of we get video games like this one.

And when it ended, with the U.S. coming from behind to barely beat Serbia, which led nearly all the sport, all I needed to do was discuss basketball. With any individual. Anyone. Didn’t even care in the event that they spoke the language. Simply needed to share what I’d simply witnessed. And to ask the query: Was this finest sport you’ve ever seen?

And if not, what was higher?

I want I have been house and had recorded the sport so I may recapture the ultimate moments intimately, how the People got here again, led by Steph Curry, an unlikely Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant and, after all, an overzealous LeBron James.

That’s who coach Steve Kerr turned to when it appeared prefer it was over for Group USA. The People trailed by eight on the finish of the primary quarter. They trailed by 11 on the half and have been down 13 factors on the finish of three quarters.

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Curry hit the primary basket of the sport to present Group USA a 2-0 lead and he hit a three-pointer six minutes in to present the People a 15-13 lead. And for the following 31 minutes, it appeared as if Serbia would play France for gold. It appeared like a Dream Group of Dream Groups till Curry hit a 3 to present Group USA an 87-86 lead. The primary lead, the second lead, the third and ultimate lead, all Curry.

He completed with 36 factors, 17 greater than another American, 16 greater than anybody on Serbia.

“I’m actually humbled to have been part of this sport,” mentioned Kerr after the 95-91 win by Group USA. “It’s one of many biggest basketball video games I’ve ever been part of.”

With 5 minutes to play, although, Jokic hit a basket and Serbia went up by seven factors, 84-77. It was then that an impressed Embiid, being booed all match by the French followers, grew to become unstoppable.

He was fouled on a basket, made a three-point play, and to chop Serbia’s result in 84-80.

The sport might need been gained on the following shot. Bogdan Bogdanovic, the superb shooter from the Atlanta Hawks, had an uncontested three — and missed. Had he made that shot, it might have 87-80 with 4:34 to go.

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Embiid then made one other basket and, on Serbia’s subsequent possession, blocked a shot, and the U.S.  trailed solely  84-82.

Once more, a three-point risk for Serbia. Once more, a miss for Vasilije Micic, who performed final season in Charlotte.

LeBron tied the sport with a type of unstoppable drives that solely he can do and it was 84-84. Tie sport. Three minutes and 41 seconds to go.

Curry hit a 3 — certainly one of 9 within the sport for him — and with 2:07 to play, it was 87-86 for the People. They’d not relinquish the lead after that.

After which one of the best of the U.S., one of the best gamers of this era, nearly any era, went to work in tandem. A LeBron basket. A Curry steal and basket. A Durant created jumper. After which Jokic scored to make it 93-91.

I’ve by no means written a basketball story this fashion. With this a lot play-by-play and backwards and forwards. However each second right here mattered. Each resolution was huge. Each shot had implications. You watch it unfold and attempt to take all of it in and you may and can’t imagine precisely what you’re seeing while you’re seeing it.

And all of the whereas, Curry was smiling, like he is aware of he’s in cost, his mouth guard dangling as normal, a part of him cocky, a part of him absolutely comprehending simply how nice he may be.

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Within the ultimate 5 minutes, Group USA outscored Serbia 18-7. Curry had seven of these factors. Embiid had 5. LeBron had 4, Durant two.

“That was a God-like efficiency,” Durant mentioned of Curry’s large sport.

At one time, Serbia led by 17 and whereas Jokic could have scored solely 17 factors, all the offence labored with him and round him.

“They performed an ideal sport,” mentioned Kerr. “And so they pressured us to achieve the very best degree of competitors that we may discover.”

Some talked afterwards a few Villanova faculty sport in opposition to North Carolina and one other one between Villanova and Georgetown.

I’ve no foundation of comparability. I don’t know if I’d ever seen something higher than Kawhi Leonard play 52 minutes on a foul leg in opposition to Milwaukee in a playoff sequence and rating 36 factors in a double additional time win that saved the Raptors’ championship season.

That was superb. As video games go, this might need been higher.

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