The 2024 Olympicmen’s basketball match ends with the U.S. taking over host France in a showdown at Bercy Enviornment.

Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James will lead the workforce because it seeks a fifth consecutive gold medal and seventeenth general.

Residence-court edge hasn’t all the time been unbeatable at Olympics

France shall be “house” for each basketball gold medal video games — the boys’s one on Saturday night time and the ladies’s one on Sunday afternoon, every time towards the U.S.

Residence groups are 5-2 getting into tonight when enjoying for basketball gold on house soil.

The U.S. women and men every gained in 1984 and 1996, sweeping the titles in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The ladies’s workforce from the Soviet Union gained in Moscow in 1980.

Australia’s ladies misplaced to the U.S. at Sydney in 2000 and Japan’s ladies additionally misplaced to the U.S. on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past.

For the Holidays, it’s 4 medals in 5 Olympics

Jrue Vacation was on the U.S. males’s basketball workforce that gained gold in Tokyo three years in the past. He’s bought an opportunity for a second hoops gold arising.

That might put him in a tie for the lead in his family.

Vacation’s spouse is Lauren Cheney Vacation, a two-time U.S. ladies’s soccer gold medalist . She gained gold in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.

Jrue Vacation will get a second Olympic medal in Paris on Saturday night time, both gold or silver. However he wants gold to tie his spouse’s mark.

“One, it means I can sit on the desk with my spouse, in order that’d be cool,” Jrue Vacation mentioned. “It’s simply an honor and a blessing. I used to be there for her in 2012 to observe her compete, after which her being right here for this one, it’s been superior to get to share it with my household.”

What to anticipate within the males’s basketball gold medal recreation

If historical past is any information, the gold medal recreation in males’s basketball between the U.S. and France may not be tremendous shut.

There have been solely two Olympic males’s basketball finals in historical past determined by 5 factors or much less: the extremely controversial 51-50 win by the Soviet Union over the U.S. in 1972, and the 87-82 win by the People over France on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past.

The common margin of victory in each different Olympic males’s gold medal recreation: 19.6 factors.

For the boys’s gold medal recreation, celebrities have seat assignments

Comic Jimmy Fallon has a pair seats ready for him. Scottie Pippen, who performed on two “Dream Groups” for the U.S. in 1992 and 1996, and Carmelo Anthony even have seats with their names on them.

Sue Fowl and Megan Rapinoe are hustling over from watching the U.S. ladies take gold in soccer together with South Carolina coach Daybreak Staley. Solely Fowl, who gained 5 Olympic gold medals, and Rapinoe, have seats marked with their names.

Followers are dressed to impress

An hour earlier than tip-off, there have been a large assortment of NBA and Olympic jerseys within the stands with followers representing LeBron James, Scottie Pippen, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Tony Parker and Victor Wembanyama.

They’re on the court docket to heat up for gold

The primary three individuals on the court docket for the Olympic gold medal recreation had been U.S. assistant coaches Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Mark Few.

There are strict guidelines about gamers not having the ability to take the court docket till precisely 60 minutes till tip-off. The primary gamers to make it on the market had been LeBron James (who began with a dunk) for the U.S. and Victor Wembanyama for France.

And let’s simply say LeBron’s sneakers shall be trending — a metallic inexperienced, glowing within the gentle.

Two USA v. France video games this weekend set the stage for main fan showings

France is about for an enormous basketball weekend to cap the Paris Olympics, with each the boys’s and girls’s groups enjoying for gold medals. And so they’re enjoying the People.

The French groups won’t be missing for assist.

Each time the French groups have performed — whether or not in Lille throughout pool play or now in Paris at Bercy Enviornment — followers not been timid in exhibiting up and exhibiting out.

U.S. ahead Breanna Stewart is wanting ahead to the atmosphere.

“Simply the way in which that the followers are persevering with to assist their international locations and are available out to France,” Stewart mentioned, ”… hopefully we bought some from the US coming. They’re being loud and making an affect in ladies’s sports activities.”

▶ Learn extra in regards to the France v. USA video games this weekend

Purple, white and blue in every single place

Some followers are submitting into Bercy Enviornment for the boys’s basketball ultimate, together with just a few People with purple, white and blue flags.

On that entrance, they’re outnumbered.

France — with its blue, white and purple tricolor flag — clearly has the identical shade scheme, and nicely over 1,000 handheld flags had been distributed in a seating space behind one of many baskets for the boys’s gold-medal recreation.

In the meantime, French basketball legend Tony Parker shall be a part of the pregame ceremony, including much more aptitude to the festivities earlier than the sport begins.

Why Jayson Tatum isn’t enjoying a lot

Jayson Tatum has not performed in two of the 5 U.S. video games on the Paris Olympics, held out of each matchups towards Serbia.

And, as soon as once more, U.S. coach Steve Kerr mentioned that it’s not an indictment of Tatum.

“It’s not what I’m not seeing from Jayson. It’s what I’ve seen from the opposite guys,” Kerr mentioned. “Like I’ve mentioned many instances throughout this match and this final six weeks, it’s simply exhausting to play 11 individuals, even in an NBA recreation.”

▶ Learn extra on Kerr’s lineup choices and the People’ balanced offense

Kevin Durant’s greatest fan is watching him in Paris: his mother, Wanda

They gave Kevin Durant the sport ball after he broke Lisa Leslie’s all-time U.S. Olympic basketball scoring report within the quarterfinals of the Paris Video games. And, in fact, he bought loads of congratulations afterward from his greatest fan.

That fan — Wanda Durant, his mom — wasn’t stunned with how her son reacted to her phrases. To her, it was a really large deal.

To her son, the report is simply one thing that occurred. He’s bought a fourth Olympic gold on his thoughts and that’s his motivation proper now.

▶ Learn extra on Kevin and Wanda Durant

Victor Wembanyama shall be a medalist — the query is whether or not it’ll be gold or silver

Blood stained the neckline of Victor Wembanyama ’s jersey after France clinched a spot within the gold-medal recreation on the Paris Olympics, courtesy of a recent reduce on the left aspect of his neck. He did loads of sweating throughout the recreation and was holding again tears when it was throughout.

Blood, sweat and tears. How becoming.

“In our nationwide anthem, we discuss blood,” Wembanyama mentioned. “We’re keen to spill blood on the court docket. So, it’s no large deal. If it permits us to win gold, I’m providing. Take all of it.”

Wembanyama — NBA rookie of the 12 months, No. 1 draft decide, already a world phenomenon — has a brand new accolade. He’s an Olympic medalist. The one query is whether or not it’ll be gold or silver, one thing that’ll be decided Saturday night time within the ultimate recreation of the boys’s basketball match on the Paris Video games.

▶ Learn extra about Victor Wembanyama’s Olympics efficiency

Booed all Olympics by the French, Joel Embiid now faces France

French followers have booed Joel Embiid all Olympics — regardless of who the U.S. is dealing with.

All of it stems from his choice to play for the U.S. reasonably than France, which granted him naturalized citizenship standing in 2022 though he has by no means lived there.

The boo birds will nearly definitely be out in full pressure with France towards the U.S. for gold.

▶ Learn extra about what Embiid thinks of the booing

Ladies’s basketball ultimate can be US vs. France

After the U.S. and France play for males’s basketball gold, the identical international locations are within the ladies’s ultimate on Sunday.

The U.S. has gained 60 consecutive video games on the Olympics, a streak that dates to 1992 in Barcelona.

A victory would give Diana Taurasi a sixth consecutive gold medal, making her essentially the most embellished basketball participant in Olympic historical past, breaking a tie with longtime teammate Sue Fowl, who gained 5.

▶ Learn extra in regards to the second U.S.-France hoops ultimate in Paris

A glance again on the US-France ultimate in Tokyo

The boys’s basketball ultimate on the Paris Olympics is a rematch of the gold-medal recreation in Tokyo three years in the past.

Kevin Durant scored 29 factors and joined Carmelo Anthony as the one three-time males’s gold medalists in Olympic historical past, Jayson Tatum added 19 and the U.S. held off France 87-82.

Nikola Jokic leads Serbia to Olympic basketball bronze medal by beating Germany

Nikola Jokic had the fifth triple-double in Olympics historical past, and Serbia beat Germany 93-83 to win the bronze medal in males’s basketball on the Paris Olympics.

Jokic, the three-time NBA MVP from the Denver Nuggets, completed with 19 factors, 12 rebounds and 11 assists to assist Serbia declare its first medal since successful silver in Rio in 2016.

Serbia bounced again after practically upsetting the four-time defending gold medalist U.S. within the semifinals.

▶ Learn extra about Serbia’s win over Germany

US males’s basketball is about for an exciting Paris end

The boys’s basketball match ends with the U.S. taking over host France in a showdown at Bercy Enviornment.

The U.S. males rallied to beat Serbia 95-91 in a compelling semifinal. Stephen Curry had 36 factors.

Now Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James will lead the workforce because it seeks a fifth consecutive gold medal and seventeenth general.

The French, led by phenom Victor Wembanyama, are searching for their first gold after settling for silver on the 1948, 2000 and 2020 Olympics, shedding the ultimate to the People in every of these tournaments. France held off World Cup champion Germany 73-69 to advance to Saturday’s ultimate.

The sport, a rematch of the ultimate in Tokyo three years in the past, is about to begin at 9:30 p.m. CEST/3:30 p.m. EDT.