2016 Rio Olympics: USA Basketball will play Serbia for gold medal
This will be a rematch of the 1996 Olympic gold medal game
By
Zach Harper
•
1 min read
After USA Basketball beat Spain 82-76 to earn their third straight gold medal game berth in the Olympics, Serbia dominated Australia in one of the uglier games of the tournament. Serbia's 87-61 victory over Australia creates a rematch of the 1996 Olympic gold medal game in Atlanta between USA and Serbia. Back in 1996, Serbia was part of Yugoslavia and is now considered the FIBA successor to Yugoslavia in terms of basketball history.
Milos Teodosic was dominant for Serbia as he nearly matched Australia's made shot total throughout most of this game. Teodosic finished with 22 points and five assists while shooting 9-of-14 from the field. Miroslav Radujlica and Stefan Markovic scored 11 and 14 points, respectively, to help but Teodosic was the main offensive weapon Australia just didn't have an answer for. They also really didn't have an answer for anything during this game.
Australia scored just five points in the first quarter and had scored 14 points by the end of the first half when they were down by 21. Even with the offense picking up in the third quarter, Australia couldn't do much to cut into Serbia's lead at any point. Patty Mills led the way with 13 points and Joe Ingles chipped in 12. Brock Motum broke into double figures with 13 points in garbage time, but no other Australian player scored in double figures. Overall, the team shot just 33 percent from the field and were 4-of-31 from 3-point range.
USA beat Serbia 94-91 in the group play round with Serbia missing a game tying 3-pointer in the final seconds of the game that likely would've sent it to overtime. Kyrie Irving led Team USA with 15 points and was one of six players in double figure scoring for his team. Nikola Jokic was the game-high scorer with 25 and Teodosic had 18 in the loss.
Sunday's gold medal game will be on Sunday following the bronze medal game between Spain and Australia.
