United States versus Serbia today. One team (hopefully the one with former Marquette guard Jimmy Butler) gets gold medals after the final horn, the other team walks away with silver medals.
No pressure, guys.
Team USA mostly handled their business against Spain in the semifinals, although Pau Gasol and crew cut the lead from double digits in the final minute down to just six at the end of the game. In the other semifinal, Serbia obliterated Australia from the opening tip. How bad did that game go? Australia scored 14 points ... in the first half. Serbia was up 16-5 after one quarter and 35-14 at the half. I suppose it wasn’t over, but when you can’t crack double digits in either of the first two quarters, that’s pretty disheartening.
Serbia and the U.S. played each other during group play, and the 94-91 USA victory was nearly a total disaster for the Americans. Team USA took an 18 point lead in the first quarter, but spent the rest of the game slowly frittering that away. Milos Teodosic made it a three point game with 78 seconds left on a pair of free throws, and Serbia would get two chances in the final minute to tie the game as the Americans couldn’t put the ball in the net to increase the margin. Both of those Serbian chances missed, too, including a three pointer from Bogdan Bogdanovic as time expired.
United States vs Serbia
When: Sunday, August 21, 2016, at 1:45pm CT
Where: Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
TV: NBC
Streaming: NBCOlympics.com