Hoops Tonight - USA-Serbia Reaction: Steph Curry & LeBron SAVE USA in SHOCKING Olympic comeback

or any simpler. Baseball, golf, UFC, there's something for every fan of every sport to bet on DraftKings. And I know it's early, but football season will be here before you know it. And the Kansas City Chiefs are currently the favorite to win the Super Bowl on DraftKings at plus five fifty. And if you're new to DraftKings, you got to check this out. New customers, bet five dollars and get one hundred and fifty in bonus bets instantly.

Download the Draft Kings Sportsbook app now and use code coops that's hops, that's code hoops for new customers to get one to fifty in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five dollars only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in West Virginia visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York called eight seven seven eight Hope and why, or text hope and Why to four six seven three

sixty nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit.

I can remember in my time watching the game. That is incredible as Team usay straight up dead to rights for three and a half quarters with about seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, lock in and come back to beat Serbia on the strength of incredible performances from Steph Curry and Lebron James, some great late game contributions from Kevin Durant. Joel Embiid contributed a lot as well.

We're going to get into it from the perspective of both teams, and then we'll talk briefly about France Germany at the end. I have a flight to catch, so I only have about twenty minutes here, so I can't get into as much detail as I usually do, but I really wanted to get this reaction out before I head out of town. You guys know the Joe. Before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow

me on Twitter at underscore json lts. You guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. And the last but not least, keepdropping mail back questions and those YouTube comments so that we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. And then real quickly, before we get started, I want to talk to you guys about game time. There are lots of amazing shows to see

this summer. You can see your favorite comedians, your favorite musicians. There's Major League Baseball games going on. I'm going to see Dead and Company at the Sphere tonight. That's literally why I'm flying out. They've got three shows left tonight, Friday, and Saturday. If you haven't seen them yet, I highly recommend you guys checking it out. But when you're trying to get tickets, especially close to the showtime, it can be a stressful process. And this is where Game Time

provides an incredible experience. First of all, it's not a convoluted process. You can check out in as few as two taps. You don't get confused by the pricing. It's all in pricing, so you know exactly what you're paying. As you're getting into that process, you don't have to worry about what you're getting for your money. You can get a good idea of what the view is from your seat within the app, and then they have some

really cool deals that pop up. They have zone deals where you can pick a segment in a section in the arena, They'll pick your seats for you in the arena and you get extra savings that way. One of the big ones that I've been using a lot is the flash deals, where game Time will just discount tickets close to showtime below what they're originally listed at and you can get really good deals. I've actually used that at twice for Dead and Company tickets and got significantly

better deals than I was able to find elsewhere. They have an incredible experience, and I highly recommend you guys check it out. Take the guesswork out of buying Major League Baseball and show tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app, create an account, use code hoops for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem code Hoops for twenty dollars off. That's hops. Download game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest

price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, first of all, what a game like I That was probably the most stressed out I've been watching a basketball game since the twenty sixteen finals in Game seven, when obviously as a Lebron fan, I was rooting for them in that crazy game. But even then, the Cavaliers kind of

controlled that game. They took a I want to say they went up by like eleven or twelve points in like the mid third quarter, and yeah, it was close and it was hectic and back and forth, but this game had a very different type of feel. Serbia straight up controlled this game for more than three quarters, and every time the US team would make a little run and cut it to eight or cut it to nine, Serbia would hit a couple shots and they'd get it right back up to fourteen to fifteen points. They came

ready to play today and it was everybody. Nikole Jokich is the best player in the world, and he was the best player in this game, and all of that was on display. Only weird thing with Jokich is he still can't hit a jump shot to save his life, which has been a continuing trend dating back to last season. Don't know what's going on there. Hopefully he gets that

worked out in time for next season. I just think they're going to need him to be able to hit those shots in order to get to where they want to go next year. But Jokic was incredible, And what was kind of funny is that the narrative if USA would have lost, would have been like, Jokic defeats the Stars of the USA by himself, but like anybody who watched that game knows, like, even though Jokic is the best player in the world, the Serbian dudes came ready

to play. Bogdn mcdonovich was absolutely who was cooking, hitting super tough shots. They had five different players hit multiple threes. They were defending well, they were flying around in rotation, they were crashing the glass. That Serbian team came ready to play, and they played well enough to give themselves a really good chance to win the game. So I just want to tip the cap to Serbia, tip the

cap to Jokic. He's an indomitable force and that and is so stressful watching him as like you're watching him back down Anthony Davis, or back down Lebron James, or back down Kevin Durant, and you're like, you feel hopeless, you feel utterly hopeless. And to those Serbian role players credit every single time they double teamed, every single time they came off the baseline cutter, it was a dunk Eruza three or it was a dunk Eruza three. Those guys just had their tic tac toe in terms of

how to handle the double teams down. Pat Jokis was making the right. Read every time shout out to the Serbian team, they they brought something special out of this team USA team that I think, as bad basketball fans we were dying to see. And it's something that if you look at the twenty eight team, the twenty twelve team, the nineteen ninety two team, the three other like kind of like super super stacked team. USA rosters those teams.

Even though the twenty eight team and twenty twelve team ended up in semi competitive games like they were never

like profoundly threatened. And that really is what you saw in that fourth quarter is like what it looks like when you watch the best players in the world, specifically a team USA squad that usually doesn't get pushed to this point when you watch them play desperate basketball, and desperate basketball is a very different type of basketball than the type of basketball that you see in a regular eighty two game regular season. Right there's a fierce attention

to detail that you need. Every box out matters, every transition, sprint matters, every single decision you make with the basketball, every jump shot carries a world of pressure. And what I thought was super fascinating is here we are in this predicament for Team USA, and the three greatest players of this era, Lebron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant were the three guys for Team USA that stepped up

and got it done. Steph in the early portion of the game, in particular, when Serbia was red hot and hitting everything, Steph was red hot two and he kept USA close enough for them to kind of remain in that striking distance so they could give themselves a chance

to come back and make it a game. And then late in the game, off of a monster screen from Joel mb It, a huge play from him there, Steph breaks three on the left wing and knocks down the lead changing shot to put Team USA up one, and then a big time transition layup from him two a

couple of clutch free throws. Steph Curry, who's had a nightmare time with Team USA, who I think his values understated because even though he's not making shots or hasn't been making shots, he's still been one of their primary, like player movement pieces that's kind of maintained spacing. I think there's a lot of value that comes from that. Like again, even though Steph hasn't been making shots, he's been guarded like he's Steph Curry, which carries a great

deal of value. But as we were hoping, eventually Steph would break out, and he broke out in a huge way tonight, thirty four points, made a bunch of huge plays at a huge steal late to just tip of the cap to Steph Curry. That was a legendary performance from him. Lebron James a triple double. I think he had sixteen points if I remember correctly, ten assists to

just two turnovers, twelve rebounds. Was battling the Kola Yo Kitchen that fourth quarter, fronting the post, absorbing the blows that allowed Joel Embiid to kind of be in that back line ready to help behind him. He got a huge stop on Yo Kitchen, a one on one situation along the right side where he forced Yo Kitch into a tough one like fade away and gotta stop. Bunch of big situations where he was battling with Yo Kicch like situations where like Lebron knew.

that play. And it kind of reminds me of like other moments in Lebron's career where it's like when push comes to shove, Lebron knows that he can just get that athleticism to engage in a way that makes him truly unstoppable in these short bursts. Even at his old age, I thought that was an incredible Lebron James performance. And then Kevin Durant, who had a rough first three quarters and was struggling to knock down shots, hit several huge

jump shots late Stephan Lebron were tired. They desperately needed someone to create a bucket and there it was up

to late clock situation. If you don't score there, Herbia has a chance to go down to tie or take the lead, and it's like, you either leave Yokic on an island and he ties the game, or you double team and you give up a three point shot to one of these guys that's been hitting, and KD hits a nasty left to right crossover dribble and gets to that one dribble, pull up off that right wing and effectively ice is the game for Team USA.

three of these guys, and they came through. And it's true, Like I don't think everybody's like worried about what Steph can accomplish with that limited Warriors roster, what Lebron can accomplish at forty years old with the Lakers team that's super incompetent and doesn't have another player other than Ad that can play both ends of the floor, Like I don't think anybody really cares too much about that, Like KD post Achilles, like I think people know what Katie

is and what he's capelove, but here in this setting, with this roster against a Serbian team that doesn't have as much talent, this was a true high pressure, legacy defining moment for all three of these guys, and all three of them came through in a huge way. And as a basketball fan, I just I was that was

just a really cool moment. And guys, we're not gonna get very many moments like that as basketball fans in our lives, and I'm just it was one of those days where I'm thankful to get to do what I do for a living so that we can come on here and talk about it. It was just a ton of fun. Shout out to those three guys. I literally can't say enough about those three just in that situation.

walking out onto the for Steph Curry, Lebron James. You guys have the reputation as being the best American players of this era, and all of it is on the line in a small sample with a huge deficit. You have to play damn near perfect basketball to close that game out, and they did just I can't say enough about those guys, and I can't wait to get more and more into this when I have some more time and I'm not running out the door to get to

a flight. But one other USA player I wanted to shout out before we move on, Joel Embiid nineteen points

on eleven shots. It was kind of a frustrating experience for me as a basketball fan rooting so hard in this game, because like Embiid got so many huge buckets in the fourth quarter, but he also gave up four offensive rebounds where he was just getting beat to the ball by that slower center I can't remember his name, the other center that was playing with Jokic, And I was like, it was like I'd be like grab the fucking basketball and then like five seconds later he hit a huge shot.

fan rooting for Joel Embiid in that moment. But I thought that was Joel Embiid's first like huge moment for Team USA, And I will always remember when we think back to the twenty twenty four Olympic team USA basketball team, I will always think back to the fact that Joel Embiid, after really struggling through the exhibition games and through the pool play games, and even a little bit in that first round game against Brazil, he although he hits a

bunch of threes in that game, but he's been struggling defensively. He's been struggling in a bunch of like specific details, And all I can remember now looking back is like when the shit hit the fan and they needed somebody to step up, and a bunch of guys on that team couldn't. Joel Embiid was one of the guys who did, and I thought that was a huge winning moment for him. I'd like to see him tighten up some of those details.

He needs to come down with some of those loose balls, and those are the little details that'll be the next step that Joel takes to win the championship. If he wants to be an NBA champion, he's got to just bring that extra level of level of competitiveness, that extra level of conditioning, that extra level of just of just savage competitiveness to get it done. And I think he's gonna get there. I think it's only a matter of time.

But I that was a that was just a really cool moment for him to and I'll always remember his contributions in that particular game. Shout out to Team USA, shout out to Serbia. Really cool moment. I want to move on France, Germany really really quick. Uh Germany jumped him early. They went up double figures a couple of separate times, and offense is always the issue for France. Their guards just aren't very good. Evan Fournier didn't have

as good of a night tonight. They really rode their their big guys, they're uh gershon Yabuselli and mattheisl sort. Those two guys were just bullying guys on the block. Ya Yabuselei. I'm trying to get better at pronouncing these names. I appreciate you guys who have been correcting me in the comments. Yabuseli had a bunch of really nice slashing possessions too, where he was getting downhill. He had a

nasty dunk. Actually, Yabuseli's an interesting player. I'm not sure what his contract situation is overseas, but he looks like a guy who could play in the NBA to me. And then the sort just Mattheisa sort, just big time post moves down the stretch. There was a huge moment where he had a big step through for like a little lamp right at the front of the rim. And he had a huge moment where he's just running up and down the floor just screaming he's too small, and

I love That's why I love basketball so much. There's like these unbridled, unfiltered moments of pure competitive expression that just that just make it like really truly special and like today the today was just a fun day as a basketball fan to watch all these games. But shout out those guys for carrying things on offense, but I really thought the defense was what got the job done for France.

he wouldn't even the best player on the team. There was like he only had seven points, and it's like he just does so much defensively to impact the game that extends so far beyond the box score. He was four for seventeen today and I thought he had a really good game. He was getting tons of deflections, tying up Dennis Schroeder on switches, had a huge block on Dennis Schroeder on a switch in the second half, he had three blocks. He was just he was just an

absolutely disruptive force. Hit a huge three points shot late. He had another nice post feed to I think it was Cardinia cutting down the middle Cordina, I think cutting down the middle, and he just ended up smoking the dunk. But it was a really nice pass that just just kind of had an unfortunate finish. But I again, just France USA is gonna be a ton of fun. The

home crowd element for France is gonna be big. I would imagine that we'll see a little bit more of go Bar in that game, just because of how much interior size that team USA has. But man, that was what a great day of basketball. I'm sorry I can't get into more detail for you guys today, but I get back from Vegas on Saturday afternoon, so I do plan on doing a video on Saturday where we break

down the gold medal game. Keep dropping mail bag questions because we're gonna do a full mail bag after the Gold Medal game because I leave for vacation to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, so I want to have some stuff to run while I'm out of town. So I've already recorded three player rankings videos that are gonna run next week, and I have the and then I'll do that mail bag tomorrow, so I'll have like four episodes worth of content that'll berunning while I'm out of town.

And then I get back a week from Sunday and will continue the player rankings from then. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show, and I'll see you guys next time the volume.

But right now, you can put all that intel to the test by bringing those patterns directly into a mock draft and make your mock draft feel like the real thing. Check out fantasypros dot com slash volume today to get an edge over your league mates right now and forever.