Olympics men’s basketball results: Semifinals – August 19

Results from the pair of semifinals matchups in the Rio 2016 Olympics men’s basketball tournament on Friday, August 19

Coming into Friday for Day 14 of the 2016 Rio Olympics, the men’s basketball tournament had their two semifinal matchups on the docket. Both games would be to determine the gold medal game participants and featured four of the favorites in the tournament. It would be Team USA vs Spain in a huge matchup to start the day. Following that would be Australia vs Serbia in what seemed to be a fantastic matchup.

Team USA and Spain going to war from Rio lived up to the hype without a doubt. Despite being questionable due to injury coming into the game, Pau Gasol was a problem for the Americans. Moreover, Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins both found themselves in early foul trouble. This allowed the Spanish squad to continue hanging around. That’s when the United States ramped up the defensive pressure, though, as DeAndre Jordan and Klay Thompson stepped up to lead the way on both ends of the floor. This allowed Team USA to hold onto their lead while keeping Spain at just 39 percent shooting on the day. In the end, the favorites in the Americans advanced to the gold medal game, 82-76.

Despite the fact that Serbia and Australia seemed closely matched on paper, things played out much differently inside Carioca Arena 1. Serbia had the Aussies perfectly scouted, playing in Patty Mills’ grill on the perimeter and shutting down any passing lanes to Aron Baynes or Andrew Bogut. Thus, the Serbs were then able to jump out to a huge lead, allowing just 14 points in the entire first half. Australia played much better in the second half, but Milos Teodosic and Nikola Jokic had already widened the gap too much at that point. Serbia cruised in the second half to secure the 87-61 win.

On Sunday to cap off the Olympics, it’ll be Team USA vs Serbia in the gold medal game. Australia and Spain will square off to start the day, though, playing for the bronze.