Four teams, USA, France, Serbia and Germany advanced to the men's basketball semifinals at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris after defeating their opponents in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Kevin Durant (#7) of USA shoots in the men's basketball quarterfinals against Brazil at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France,c August 6, 2024. /CFP
USA 122-87 Brazil
USA saw six of their players score double-digit points to secure a bin win over Brazil. Devin Booker drained five triples out of seven attempts to get team-high 18 points. Joel Embiid got all of his 14 points in the first half, during which his side led 63-36.
Kevin Durant contributed 11 points off the bench and surpassed Lisa Leslie for the most points in American Olympic history. LeBron James had 12 points and nine assists, but was hit with an inadvertent elbow to his eye in the third quarter. He received four stiches.
"Records are meant to be broken, so somebody will come along and do the same to me," Durant said. "My focus is on trying to win this gold."
Victor Wembanyama (#32) of France blocks a shot by Dillon Brooks (#24) of Canada in the men's basketball quarterfinals at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France,c August 6, 2024. /CFP
France 82-73 Canada
Guerschon Yabusele and Isaia Cordinier combined to drop 42 points for France. The two shot 6-for-9 from downtown. Yabusele, who once played in China for Shanghai, earned nine free throws and made eight of them. Evan Fournier and Mathias Lessort added 15 and 13 points respectively off the bench.
"Les Bleus" unicorn Victor Wembanyama struggled to make shots in Tuesday's game as he missed eight of his 10 field goals (FGs), including all six behind the arc. Nonetheless, he still played a solid role on the defensive end with 12 rebounds, including 10 on the defensive glass, three steals and one block.
"We had a lot of time to think, to fix things, and the whole team was just so dedicated to fixing everything," Wembanyama said. "Now we've got a good base to build on for the final phase of the tournament."
Nikola Jokic (#15) of Serbia shoots in the men's basketball quarterfinals against Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France,c August 6, 2024. /CFP
Serbia 95-90 Australia
Serbia overcame a 24-point deficit in the first half to knockout "the Boomers." Nikola Jokic played 39 minutes on the court and scored team-high 21 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists, four steals and one block to carry his team to the Olympic semifinals.
Bogdan Bogdanovic added 17 points for Serbia He admitted that for a moment he doubted if they could come back in such a desperate situation.
"Honestly, we didn't keep cool," Bogdanovic said. "We're playing against world-class individuals. World-class teams. World-class coaches. And this is why you play international basketball. It's a different sport than any other league around the world. It brings the best out of everyone."
Serbia will face USA in the semifinals. They lost to the defending champions 110-84 in their group game.
Giannis Antetokounmpo (#34) of Greece shoots in the men's basketball quarterfinals against Germany at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France,c August 6, 2024. /CFP
Germany 76-63 Freece
The Germans didn't stop Giannis Antetokounmpo from shooting 9-for-14 in FGs to score game-high 22 points, but they managed to teach him a hard lesson: This is how far he could take his team by himself.
The Greek Freak got only two points in the second quarter when the opponents contained him with full-court stress, switching and denying him the ball. They completely paralyzed Greece's ball movement. Defensively, Antetokounmpo did everything he could with his size and athletics, but he couldn't guard five players by himself.
Franz Wagner got team-high 18 points for Germany. His backup teammates outscored their Greek counterpart 35-8.
"I think everybody on the team knows that we've got a special group, and I want to get the most out of this," Wagner said. "Obviously, last year was special, but we're trying to continue that and hopefully keep that momentum going forward."
Germany will play France again in the semifinals. They beat the hosts 85-71 in their group finale.