The United States continued their reign over Spain with a scrappy 82-76 win to put them through to the gold medal final of the men’s basketball tournament for a third straight Olympics.
The Americans will ride a 24-game Olympic winning streak into today’s final where they will take on Serbia who will play for gold for the first time as an independent nation.
Serbia stormed into an early lead then held on to rout Australia 87-61 to send the Olympic debutants through to the final.
With the two top-ranked teams, number one US and number two Spain, both packed with NBA talent, the game had the familiar buzz of a gold medal final.
The countries met to decide the gold at the previous two Olympics in London and Beijing, with the United States coming out on top both times.
“What I would say it was a very hard game,” United States coach Mike Krzy-zewski told reporters.
“It wasn’t easy flowing and both teams had to make big plays. I thought our guys did that a little bit more than they did.”
The United States led from the opening tip-off but were never able to run away from a Spanish squad determined to end decades of frustration that has seen them lose all 12 meetings with the US team on Olympic or World Championship hardwood dating back to 1936.
The US held 10-point or more leads in the second, third and fourth quarters but each time Spain would claw their way back into the game, keeping the outcome in doubt although the United States never appeared in danger of losing control.
Klay Thompson broke out of his Olympic scoring funk in a big way, dropping a team-high 22 points, while Kevin Durant chipped in with 14.
While Serbia will be making their first appearance in the gold medal game, they bring a deep pedigree to the final.
As part of the rump of former Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, they beat the US in the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Championships on the way to the gold, and were beaten for a silver by the US at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Women’s bronze medal match: Serbia vs France 70-63.