How Stephen Curry, Team USA performed vs. Nikola Jokic’s Serbia

How Stephen Curry, Team USA performed vs. Nikola Jokic’s ...

By Jay Postrado July 18, 2024 07:11

There is no heir-apparent to who the next faces of basketball would be. While Nikola Jokic has proven that he could be the most unstoppable force with the Denver Nuggets and is in contention for that honor, the same cannot be said when he was faced with Team USA. Serbia held on in the earlier rounds of this clash but they just could not deal with the depth of the Stars and Stripes. Stephen Curry, in particular, blazed up and torched this team with his outside shooting.

Team USA now has three exhibition wins under their belt after demolishing Nikola Jokic and Serbia. They ended the game with a 105-79 scoreline and it did not look remotely close since the start of the second quarter.

Steve Kerr gave Stephen Curry the most minutes out of everyone in Team USA. The Golden State Warriors point guard operated on 21 minutes of playing time and did not waste a single second of it. He knocked down eight of his 13 shots from the field and even went six for nine in his three-point attempts. This scoring masterclass helped him end up with a game-high 24 points. No one else on Team USA managed to even score more than 20 points in this game.

The Team USA coach, however, raised a lot of eyebrows when he placed Curry on the bench while the shooter was heating up. Kerr had to explain his rotational philosophy and why it would not be good for the squad if he played Curry in more minutes against Serbia, via Joe Vardon of The Athletic.

“Warriors fans are hating me tonight like they hate me every time I take Steph out. We’re still in the process of getting ready, getting guys over the hump conditioning-wise. But again, the whole focus for this team is defense, defense, defense. So as long as we are putting pressure on the ball and making things difficult for our opponent, it’s going to be a different guy every night scoring. These guys are all really talented,” the Team USA head honcho declared.

Other big contributors for Team USA against Serbia

Stopping Nikola Jokic is no easy feat. While he still finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, the Team USA big men made life very difficult for The Joker and eventually contained his offensive output. Guys like Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis left it all on the floor when they guarded the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player winner. Jokic was then limited to a horrid 6-19 shooting night from the field. All the passing lanes were also clogged which meant that he only got two assists in this matchup.

It was also Adebayo who was clearly the secondary scoring option for Team USA that helped bury their opponents. On just 18 minutes of action, he knocked down six out of his nine field goal attempts and went 3-5 on his three-pointers for 17 points. LeBron James then scored 11 points while Anthony Edwards also gave 16 points and stole the ball three times to prevent Serbia from gaining any momentum.