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PARIS — U.S. coach Steve Kerr knows something unexpected is going to happen when his team plays against Serbia in the semifinals of the Paris Olympics. Maybe Serbia will change its lineup. Maybe Nikola Jokic will play the entire game. Or maybe the surprise will be that there’s no surprise at all.
Whatever the case, Kerr knows the Americans have to be ready for anything.
The U.S. will look to reach the gold-medal game for the 18th time in its 20 Olympic appearances when it faces Serbia in the semifinals of the Paris Games on Thursday night. The Americans are 2-0 against Serbia this summer, winning an exhibition last month and then winning again in the Olympic opener for both teams.
[U.S. eases past Brazil to roll into semifinals of Paris Olympic basketball tournament]
“Serbia is really good,” Kerr said. “We can’t get lulled to sleep because we beat them twice. We have to be prepared for their best effort.”
The final four teams at the Paris Games aren’t an overly surprising mix, and the semifinal games are both rematches from contests earlier in this tournament.
World Cup champion Germany takes on Victor Wembanyama and host France in the first semifinal, while World Cup runner-up Serbia takes on the four-time defending Olympic champion U.S. in the second semifinal. Germany, Serbia and the U.S. were all favored in their quarterfinal wins over Greece, Australia and Brazil, respectively, while France pulled the lone surprise of sorts by ousting Canada.
Serbia rallied from 24 points down to beat Australia. Germany — which had barely trailed at all in the tournament before Tuesday — erased a 12-point deficit to beat Greece.
“We stayed together. We didn’t panic, we stayed together,” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said. “Adversity’s good. The quarterfinal is one of the toughest games to play. And we just talked about enjoying the moment, but it’s easy to say, not so easy to do.”
The medal games are Saturday. Thursday’s winners play for gold, Thursday’s losers play for bronze.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to make sure we play on the last day of the tournament, to make sure we give ourselves a chance to win a medal,” France guard Evan Fournier said. “And hopefully it’s going to be the right one.”
Germany vs. France
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How Germany got here: defeated Japan 97-77, defeated Brazil 86-73, defeated France 85-71, defeated Greece 76-63 in quarterfinals.
How France got here: defeated Brazil 78-66, defeated Japan 94-90, lost to Germany 85-71, defeated Canada 82-73 in quarterfinals.
Medal history: France is a three-time silver medalist (1948, 2000, 2020). Germany has never won an Olympic medal in men’s basketball.
Outlook: The French rode defense to their win over Canada in the quarterfinals, with the curious case of Rudy Gobert an interesting subplot to that one — he says he had surgery to fix a finger issue, coach Vincent Collet says Gobert didn’t have a procedure, but either way, he’ll be good to go in the semifinals. Whether he will return to the starting lineup remains unclear. ... This is Germany’s first trip to the Olympic semifinals. Going back to last year’s World Cup, Germany is 12-0 in major international competition since last summer (excluding exhibitions). ... Thursday’s game will be the fourth between these clubs this summer. Germany went 2-1 in the first three, and France’s win came when Germany was missing a bunch of starters. ... Germany’s Franz Wagner is the highest per-game scorer left in the tournament, getting 20.8 per contest so far.
U.S. vs. Serbia
How the U.S. got here: defeated Serbia 110-84, defeated South Sudan 103-86, defeated Puerto Rico 104-83, defeated Brazil 122-87 in quarterfinals.
How Serbia got here: lost to U.S. 110-84, defeated Puerto Rico 107-66, defeated South Sudan 96-85, defeated Australia 95-90 in quarterfinals.
Medal history: The U.S. has won 16 golds (1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020), one silver (1972) and two bronzes (1988, 2004). Serbia won silver in 2016.
Outlook: The U.S. has started an Olympics with four consecutive games of 100 or more points for only the second time. The other was 1992; that team scored 100 or more in all of its Olympic contests. ... Both U.S. wins over Serbia this summer have been by exactly 26 points — 110-84 in France and 105-79 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. ... Nikola Jokic is averaging 19.3 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic is averaging 18.5 points for Serbia in these Olympics. ... Anthony Edwards is averaging 16.8 points per game to lead the U.S., and he’s doing that coming off the bench. ... If Jayson Tatum makes a 3-pointer in either of the final two U.S. games — he hasn’t made one yet this summer — this will be the first U.S. Olympic team in which all 12 players make at least one shot from beyond the arc.