Steph Curry, Suns stars help USA rally past Serbia to reach Olympic gold medal game

Stephen Curry scored 36, including the late go-ahead bucket, and the USA men’s basketball team overcame a 13-point deficit with a quarter to go to pull ahead of Serbia in the final moments Thursday to reach the Paris Olympics’ gold medal game via a 95-91 win.

Host France awaits the Americans in the tournament finals.

Phoenix Suns Kevin Durant, who went scoreless in the first half, and Devin Booker, who had just three points at halftime, showed up to cut the lead when it counted. They played the clutch minutes down the stretch with LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Curry.

Durant and then Booker hit consecutive threes with seven minutes left in the game to cut the deficit from 78-67 to 78-73. Durant hit another jumper to make it an 80-75 deficit a minute later.

A LeBron James layup with 3:39 left tied the game at 84 apiece, and a Curry three with 2:24 left gave the Americans the lead for good. James closed with a triple-double of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Durant finished with nine and needed a long two-point jumper with less than a minute to go to extend USA’s lead to four.

Joel Embiid, who has struggled in the Olympics, stepped up for his biggest performance as a member of Team USA, scoring 19 and going 8-of-11 from the field, attacking Serbia out of midrange postups.

Serbia led 76-63 after the third quarter and 54-43 after a first half where it pulled out a zone defense that the American hadn’t seen much of so far on their run in France. Serbia shot 54% in the first half and made 10 of 19 threes, accounting for more than half of its makes.

Curry scored 20 first-half points to keep Team USA afloat, but the rest of the United States combined to go 8-for-21 in the first half.

Follow @AZSports