Image Source: Alamy Stock Photo
2024 Olympic Games
Basketball
Accor Arena
Paris, France
8-10 August 2024
United States and France could be on a course collision in the men's basketball tournament after the two Tokyo 2020 finalists qualified for the
Paris 2024 semi-finals.
USA beat the French 87-82 in the decider three years ago to clinch their 16th gold medal and we could see a repeat of that match in 2024.
Steve Kerr's team have a perfect record thus far after securing comfortable victories over Serbia (110-84), South Sudan (103-86) and Puerto Rico (104-83) in the group stages before eliminating Brazil (122-87) in the quarter-finals.
The defending champions will go head-to-head with Serbia once more as they prepare to face a familiar foe in Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic for the second time in the space of 11 days.
Image Source: Alamy Stock Photo
Svetislav Pesic's team responded quickly to their setback against USA by defeating Puerto Rico (107-66), South Sudan (96-85) and Australia (95-90) most recently in overtime.
Olympic hosts France will get a rematch with Germany in the last four after losing to them 85-71 in the group stages - their sole defeat to date in the tournament.
Vincent Collet's team saw off Canada 82-73 in the quarter-finals, while the Germans maintained their 100 per cent record with a 76-63 victory over Greece.
Suggested photo: Victor Wembanyama of France
Kerr has come in for more criticism after benching Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton against Brazil. The former scored just five points despite playing for close to 20 minutes and the latter managed only two points in eight minutes.
However, Kerr was unfazed by his critics, saying: "It's okay. Being in this position, you do what you have to do to win.
"Who you play every game is a little different based on your opponents. We've been practicing every single day with this group for a month. We know how to put our best foot forward.
"All 12 of these guys are worthy of playing, you know, the entire game, but it's just not how it works. So we're going to keep doing what we're doing and hopefully keep winning."
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