Team USA now knows who they’ll be playing in their gold medal matchup. Team Serbia dominated Team Australia by a score of 87-61 for the chance to win their first ever gold medal.
Team Serbia has made 4 appearances in the Olympics, and their best finish previously was a silver medal in Atlanta in 1996.
There’s a bit of an asterisk with that, though, because technically they were a part of the Yugoslavian team in 1996.
The Serbian team is considered a successor to FR Yugoslavia, so at least in some regards, this will be a rematch of that gold medal game from 20 years ago.
?THEY DID IT! ?@usabasketball is heading to the FINALS to defend their #GOLD! pic.twitter.com/TC9RG1Uwzb
— U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) August 19, 2016
Team Serbia took down an Australian squad with multiple NBA players. The only player on Team Serbia currently in the NBA is Nikola Jokic.
Team Australia started off the game with an utter lack of offense, scoring just 14 points in the entire first half.
They recovered to finish the game with a 51.4% field goal percentage, but they couldn’t overcome that terrible start.
They also went just 4-31 from 3-point range, which goes a long way in explaining that huge deficit.
Milos Teodosic lead the game with 22 points for Team Serbia, going 9-14 from the field while also handing out 5 assists, which tied for the game high.
#USA advances to the #Rio2016 Final with 82-76 victory over #ESP pic.twitter.com/TwkQ5N1Moj
— NBA (@NBA) August 19, 2016
Team Serbia was up by as many as 31 points at one stage of the game, and ended up holding the lead for over 39 minutes of a 40 minute match.
Despite their relative lack of NBA presence on their roster, Team Serbia has proven how formidable they are in this tournament.
They nearly handed Team USA a loss when they met on August 12th, losing just 94-91. It’s setting up to be another thrilling contest in that showdown for the gold medal.
Since NBA players have been allowed to participate in the Olympics, Team USA has never lost in any gold medal game they’ve participated in.
These two teams will play for that gold medal on August 21st, which is also the final day of these Olympics.