U.S. rolls into semifinals of basketball tournament

United States’ LeBron James, left, tries to pass while under pressure from Brazil’s Leo Meindl during a men’s basketball game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

PARIS (AP) — All the favored teams in the first three men’s basketball quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics had problems. Canada lost to France. Serbia erased a 24-point deficit to beat Australia. Germany had to shake off a double-digit deficit before beating Greece.

So, going into the fourth and final game of the night, the U.S. knew what it had to do.

“We wanted to come out and make sure we were the aggressor,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr.

They made it look easy, too. Devin Booker led a balanced front with 18 points and the Americans had little trouble with Brazil in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics, winning 122-87 on Tuesday.

The U.S. (4-0) moves on to face Serbia (3-1) in Thursday’s semifinals, while Germany (4-0) takes on France (3-1) in the other semifinal. Winners of those games will play Saturday night for the gold medal; Thursday’s losers will play Saturday morning for the bronze medal.

“Everybody expects us to win,” U.S. forward Jayson Tatum said. “But you don’t take things for granted, right? Canada lost earlier. It’s a different game. It’s not like playoffs, where it’s a series. We’ve got one game and a lot of (stuff) can happen in one game, especially over here.”

If there was one issue, it was this: LeBron James left in the third quarter after catching an elbow around his left eye, struck by Brazil’s Georginho de Paula while going for a rebound. James went down, eventually pressed a towel over the eye and left for the locker room area later in the third.

Kerr said James needed four stitches.

“I’m all right,” James said. “Got hit with an inadvertent elbow around the eye.”

Anthony Edwards scored 17 points, while Joel Embiid — booed again in France, of course — had 14 points and seven rebounds in 12 first-half minutes for the Americans. Anthony Davis finished with 13 points and eight rebounds for the U.S. James had 12 points and nine assists.

Kevin Durant scored 11 points and passed Lisa Leslie as the U.S. Olympic career scoring leader, men’s or women’s. Leslie had 488 points in her four Olympic appearances, all of which ended with gold medals. Durant is trying to go 4 for 4 on the gold front as well; he’s two wins away from getting that done.

“He’s incredible. He was born to play ball and he’s simply incredible,” James said. “I’m happy for him. Congratulations to him. I’m super proud of him. And he’s got more to go.”

There was a moment where Brazil might have thought it had a chance. It trailed the U.S. by only eight midway through the second quarter. A big deficit had turned into something rather manageable.

The moment was short-lived.

A 21-2 run over the final 3:56 of the half turned things into their predictable blowout state. It eliminated whatever doubt there might have been — let’s be honest, there wasn’t much, if any — and the U.S. turned that eight-point lead into a 63-36 runaway going into the final 20 minutes.

Bruno Caboclo was the star for Brazil, leading all scorers with 30 points.

Playing in Paris for the first time during these Games, the crowd was smaller — the arena used for the three games in the group stage is nearly twice as big as the one being used for the knockout stage — but given the stakes, the turnout certainly seemed more star-studded.

Retired U.S. Olympic basketball star Carmelo Anthony and his son, Kiyan, were there, seated next to Pau Gasol in VIP spots near the court. U.S. women’s star A’ja Wilson had a spot next to Snoop Dogg, who has become the unofficial ambassador of all things Team USA at these Olympics.

They came for a show. They got one. James led the end-of-half surge, and that was basically the game.

“Bron just out there throwing dimes,” UConn women’s star Paige Bueckers offered on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and she wasn’t wrong. He was 4 for 4 in the half from the floor, 2 for 2 from the line, a tidy 10 points and eight assists.

James walked back to the bench with about three minutes left in the game, after being tended to following that shot to the face.

And the crowd in Paris roared.

Maybe it was because James was fine. It might have been because at the same moment, French Olympic swimming star Leon Marchand — a winner of four gold medals at these Paris Games — was being shown on the scoreboard as well.

Either way, they had plenty to cheer.

“These are the medal games now,” Booker said. “Have to take it to another level.”