It is now the fourth time the Australian men’s team has been beaten in an Olympic semi-final after going down in 1988, 1996 and 2000.
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The names and faces change on Team USA – no more Kobe, perhaps no more LeBron – but there is an air of inevitability when the Americans take the court.
Now they need one more to stay on top.
Beating Team USA in Friday’s Olympic semifinal was always going to be a heavy lift for Spain, let alone for the 36-year-old Gasol. Team USA didn’t shoot much better, hitting 41.8 percent of its shots.
The US NBA squad stretched its 10-year overall win streak to 75 games since a 2006 World Championships semi-final loss to Greece, earning a chance at a third gold in a row and sixth in seven tries with NBA talent.
Klay Thompson scored 22 points and Kevin Durant had 14 points as the US defeated Spain 82-76 Friday in the semifinals. Kyrie Irving had 13 for the U.S.
To which, Krzyzewski, 69, replied: “You are very young”. “I think we showed in our last game that they are not unbeatable”.
Australia will play Spain in the bronze medal match at 11.30am Sunday (12.30am Monday AEST) with US, who beat the Spaniards 76-82 in the other semi-final, taking on Serbia on the gold medal match at 3.45pm (4.45am Monday AEST).
Serbia stormed to an early lead then held on to rout Australia 87-61 to send the Olympic debutants through to the final. The underdogs refused to fold as they continued to feed Pau Gasol, whose game-high 23 points kept the team afloat, but the Americans showed a granite chin in answering Spain’s best offerings, leaving the veteran center to lament a missed opportunity.
Krzyzewski called Jordan “such a good team mate” and his National Basketball Association peers have found it very easy to play with him. “It’s an unbelievable feeling and something we really want to accomplish”.
“We’ve got a lot to learn in a short time”.
“We expected the same today, and we got it”.
The uneven, stop-and-go pace of the opening reached a nadir during the second quarter, which saw no less than six technical fouls assessed and found the United States at their most vulnerable.
“We wouldn’t play for the gold medal”, Krzyzewski said, “if DeAndre didn’t play that well”. “They took advantage of their strength”.
“But it became very sensitive”.
If you watch Thompson drain threes on one end and handcuff elite guards on the other, then his answer will not surprise you.
“At the end of the day we’ve still got a chance to do something that no other team has done from Australia”.
“He played a great game”, United States coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I thought in the second half, it was much better”.
US led by 15 points at 72-57 with 7:30 remaining in the game, but Spain closed on a 19-10 run to create the final six-point winning margin. Whenever he got the ball down low, his teammates cleared out and let him go to work. But the difference-maker was DeAndre Jordan, in the starting lineup for the second straight contest after playing behind DeMarcus Cousins in all five games of the group stage. Jordan earned Gasol’s respect, with the Spurs forward/center hugging Jordan afterward.
Jordan’s skill set isn’t necessarily a great fit for the worldwide game, which values spacing and perimeter shooting. Yet, he just played an enormous role in eliminating Spain from gold-medal contention. Two of those Gold Medal occurrences have been accomplished under Head Coach Mike Kezyzewski.
“Giving the guys touch shots, blocked shots, that’s the kind of player that I am”.
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“Our hearts right now are bleeding”, Scariolo said. We are winners. It’s painful. We came here to win a medal.
