USA vs. Serbia: Pre-Olympic Basketball Showdown

Earlier today, Team USA played Nikoli Jokic and Team Serbia in their third pre-Olympic tune-up

And just to recap, in Game 1, Team USA would handle Team Canada, but there's definitely

some issues with flow on offense. And in Game 2, just two days ago, versus Australia, Team USA would dominate for a majority of

the game before letting Australia come back and almost steal one from them

So today was massive for Team USA. I know everyone's talking about how these are just exhibition matches

And for me personally, I have a very high standard for Team USA, specifically this team

It's been a long time since we've had pretty much a full strength Olympic roster

And so when that happens, my desire is to see Team USA absolutely dominate as much as possible

And today versus Serbia is a great tune up for them. They actually have Serbia in their group once the Olympics actually start, which will be in a little over a week

This is a good team. They're ranked fourth in the world. They won the World Cup last year without Jokic

and they do have the fourth best odds to win gold in the Olympics

behind Team USA, Team Canada, and Team France. So let's get right into this one

If you're a Team USA fan, this is going to be a super fun video. It was an awesome game for Team USA, as the title indicated

Let's get right into it. So today, Steve Kerr goes back to Drew Holiday over Anthony Edwards

in the starting lineup, but he leaves Jason Tatum in and Devin Booker coming off the bench. Someone in my comment

section last game when Steph Curry went just one for six from the field and was pretty much

an afterthought out there mentioned that Steph always bounces back after bad games and he was

absolutely right. Steph Curry, matter of fact, scores the first nine points for Team USA in this

one, including two threes and this offensive rebound, which led to a jumper. On the Serbian

side they actually did not have bogdan bogdanovich who in my opinion is almost as important for

serbia as nikola jokic he absolutely torched team france and he also did not play yesterday

in their loss to australia they need him on the perimeter handling the ball obviously his

shooting and his ability to run that two-man game with nikola jokic in bogey's absence alexa avram

was on fire early he hits two threes early on Jokic will put this move on Embiid and somehow

biff the layup with Drew Holiday later on him he'll bury him down under the basket miss again

but get the putback and Serbia's up 14 to 9 early on after a LeBron fadeaway and a Joel Embiid

bucket it 14 to 13 when the second unit for Team USA comes on consisting of Anthony Edwards Devin Booker Tyrese Halliburton Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis Check out this incredible outlet pass from Nikola Jokic Serbia was just playing harder than Team

USA early on in this one, and you could tell, although they were resting bogey, this game

mattered to Serbia. Anthony Edwards hits this step-back three, tying the game at 24-24, and then

immediately gets a steal on the ensuing possession. Serbia, again, to end the quarter, has this

beautiful outlet pass. Anthony Edwards almost blocks the layup as it goes in at the buzzer

and we are knotted up 28-28 at the end of the first quarter. Starting the second quarter

Embiid tries to foul bait on Nikola Jokic, and these FIBA refs are having absolutely none of it

We'll talk more about Joel Embiid later, but again today, he's been better than his first game

but again today, we are seeing that Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo have just been so much better

for Team USA, Dan Ambead has been in these first couple Olympic tune-ups

Micic hits a three for Serbia, and Serbia's back up 34-28 to start the second quarter

After a LeBron three, here's a beautiful play where Steph, again, an incredible action

It was a flex cut. Hits another three. USA's up 38-36. Steph has 12 already

This was a pretty fun sequence. Next time down for Jokic, he finishes this hook shot

Steph goes right to the rim and scores. and then he follows it up with the next possession with a four-point play

Steph Curry's come to play. Shout out to whoever made that comment on my last video

I'll throw it up on the screen now. 18 points for Steph Curry early on in this game

Derek White finally checks in for his first action since being added as an injury replacement for Kawhi Leonard

Anthony Edwards hits this pull-up three, giving him 10 points early. And at this point, Team USA is starting to pull away

Jokic has a tough finish through contact. Bam makes this jumper. And then, of course, Anthony Davis has been phenomenal

but he's been especially phenomenal on the defensive end. He gets like three blocks here within a couple possessions

including two different blocks on Nikola Jokic. Anthony Davis is absolutely insane

And I mean, Jokic is doing the best he can here. He has this super tough finish over Bam

and then an and one trying to keep the lead within 10. But with Bogey out, he doesn't have anybody

that is more than just a role player alongside of him. And that's not a shot against these Serbian guys

These role players are very good, but they aren't creators the way that Bogie's a creator

Bam hits this corner three and Team USA is up 14 on Serbia

outscoring them 31 to 17 in the second quarter. And the second half was a super fun one

if you are a Team USA stan like me. Drew Holiday hits a couple threes early

It a 26 point game I mean look at this defense Anthony Davis on Nikola Jokic here again He was I can even say it Anthony Davis has been probably the best player on Team USA consistently through these

first three games. He probably has to start in these Olympics. Let's just take a look just in

the second half here at all the shots that he affected. He was making Joker work a ton even

when Joker would score. The U.S. is up 25 points at the end of the third quarter, 83 to 58. And then

in the fourth, AD gets another block. That's five blocks on the day. This is where it got super fun

If you're a team USA fan, here's a nice mid range from Anthony Edwards. And again, Anthony Davis

another block that's six blocks on the night. It gets better guys. This fourth quarter was prime

team USA basketball. The team that I believe we've been waiting for now, obviously it's just one game

but it's exciting to see flashes like this because I have such high hopes for this team

The first unit comes in for just a couple more minutes left in this game

Step with an unbelievable three here. He's got 21. LeBron almost has an incredible block, but it's basket interference

And then on the next possession, Bam Adebayo throws this absurd alley-oop to LeBron James

who's about to turn 40 years old, mind you. Then on the ensuing possession, check out this pass from Drew Holiday

behind the back without looking to Steph Curry who of course knocks down the three that's a team

high 24 points for Steph Curry in this one LeBron has an and one and this fourth quarter was so much

fun I mean Jokic was out for the entire fourth quarter however it was super cool to see Team USA

recognize that they wanted to finish this game in dominating fashion even though it's an exhibition

one maybe that australia game was the best thing ever to happen to them and to make things even

more fun langston galloway and micah potter get in at the end they both hit a three they're just

a couple of alternate guys that are there for practice team usa wins 105 to 79 this is a

statement win and like i said earlier guys we're covering every single game that team usa plays

during this olympic cycle including these exhibitions and it may not feel like these

exhibitions mean much to you, but in my opinion, every game counts of this Olympic cycle. I want

Team USA to absolutely dominate this Olympic cycle. With that being said, let's take a quick

look at the box score in this one. Steph Curry finishes with a team high 24 points, 6-4-9 from

three. Bim Adebayo was awesome in this one as well. He finished with three threes, 17 points

and eight rebounds. Anthony Davis only had seven points but he had six block shots six rebounds And like I said he was absolutely phenomenal He been the best player on team USA so far And then Anthony Edwards finished with

16 points as well. Jokic would finish with 16 points and 11 boards for team Serbia. And then

Alexa Avramovic finished with 14 points as well. I'm not too worried about Serbia. Bogie is the

difference maker for them. And obviously they didn't have him. My semi conspiracy theory is

they're purposely holding him out versus some of these teams in preparation for the Olympics

But honestly, there's nothing that Serbia or any other team on the world stage can do when Team USA

is playing like they did today. They shot 16 for 36 as a team from three. That's good for 44%

And they only turned it over 12 times as a team compared to 18 times versus Australia

Team USA plays South Sudan in London in just three days. Then they'll finish up their exhibition

season versus Germany on July 22nd, which will lead us into the actual Olympics next Saturday

If you guys are interested, I'm planning on doing an everything you need to know about

the Olympics video. In doing so, I don't know as much about European basketball and EuroLeague, so my goal would

be to bring someone on who's an expert in that regard. And that's something I'm passionate about throughout this Olympic season

While I'm covering these videos from an NBA perspective, I would also love to be able

to help even if it's not me shine more of a light on the international basketball stage and primarily

these players in the euro league that have never really gotten a chance in the nba but they're

super impactful players as well so be on the lookout for that one guys thank you so much for

watching this video team usa is on the right page i want to see them continue this style of play like

late in that game on defense they had such tenacity even though they were dominating i think there's

something special about that especially the culture that we live in and even just the basketball

environment we live in where everyone's worried about getting injured the all-star game is no

longer competitive i think this team usa team has a chance to show the world and even show their own

fans of the nba that they take this competition seriously that's why i'm so hard on that yes the

world's gotten better since the 1992 dream team probably even since the 2008 redeem team but at

the same time this specific team usa is much more talented than any other team in this pool of the

olympics so they should dominate it's just a matter of will they be able to play together on offense

moving the ball and gelling together and then defensively do they want it do they want to play

hard i think it's a fun opportunity thank you guys so much for watching this video be on the lookout

for an angel reese and a caitlin clark video soon and as always we'll see you on the hardwood