Anthony Davis perfectly encapsulated how Team USA felt after their comeback 95-91 victory over Serbia in the semi-finals of the 2024 Olympics by praising Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid. Davis let his humor shine through, referencing an infamous Charles Barkley moment on ‘Inside The NBA’ through his praise.
“Got two words. Stephen Curry. Joel Embiid.”
Anthony Davis: “Got two words. Stephen Curry. Joel Embiid.”
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) August 8, 2024
Clearly, Davis said four words instead of two by naming his two teammates. This is a call-back to Charles Barkley trying to hype up a matchup between Steve Nash and Chris Paul years ago on Inside the NBA, where he was asked to summarize their battle in two words, with Barkley then naming both players and adding ‘must-see TV’ after that.
Curry and Embiid played a huge role in today’s win over Serbia, with Curry nearly breaking a Team USA Olympic record for most points in a single game with his 36-piece against Serbia, which was one shy of Carmelo Anthony’s 37-point high. Embiid had the best FIBA game of his career, putting up 19 very efficient points. Embiid even rattled off a solo 8-0 run in the second half to bring the USA back into the game.
Anthony Davis hasn’t been a statistical monster in the Olympics but his defensive impact is arguably the biggest. He ended tonight with four points. His Lakers teammate LeBron James made more basketball history by becoming the first player to have multiple triple-doubles in Olympic competition with his 16 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists.
Team USA needs to head into a tricky Gold medal game against France next.
USA vs. Serbia Was One Of The Greatest Games In Modern History
The tension of the USA vs. Serbia matchup is something rarely replicated in modern basketball, especially international basketball. It does help when you have the best team in the world on one side with the USA and the best player in the world on the other side with Jokic.
This led to a chess match, with Jokic putting on a playmaking masterclass and finding open shooters almost every time he made a pass. He led them into jumping out to a massive lead, but the USA wore it down in the second half before entering the final quarter down by just eight points. They ate that deficit up and ultimately walked out four-point winners.
Steve Kerr called it the greatest game he’s ever participated in.
“One of the greatest basketball games I’ve ever been a part of. Humbled by being part of it.”
We might be getting carried away with recency bias, as the 2008 Gold medal game between the USA and Spain was just as nail-biting, though would not be remembered by most young fans of the sport. But we haven’t seen an international matchup like this in a while and it was a terrific display of basketball by both teams.
Serbia will hope to win their second Olympic medal in the Jokic era, having secured Silver at Rio 2016 when they lost to the USA in the Final that year as well. They’ll face Germany in the Bronze medal matchup while USA prepares to face the host nation, France.
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