Team USA coach Steve Kerr is expecting Serbia to throw up more of a challenge in the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympics basketball tournament.
LeBron James and Co breezed past Brazil in the last round and previously beat their Eastern European opponents by 26 points during the group stage.
But Kerr believes Serbia – led by Nikola Jokic – are playing the long game and will come out all guns blazing in Paris later today.
Speaking to the media, Kerr said: “We can’t get lulled to sleep because we beat them twice.
“We have to be prepared for their best effort. We’ve got to think about what are they going to do differently. J
“Jokic, I guess he could play 40 minutes. What else do they have up their sleeve.”
All of Team USA’s NBA stars have watched Jokic become a three-time Most Valuable Player in recent years.
Records are meant to be broken, I’ll hold on to this until another great comes along and passes me up…Lisa Leslie you are the gold standard in basketball, I appreciate your love and support throughout the years..much love to you always…it’s all about the gold baby. Let’s get… pic.twitter.com/huJxy8Qywa
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 7, 2024
He leads the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game.
Jokic played 31 minutes last time out against the USA and could get even more time on the court to prevent his opponents from building a big lead.
But Joel Embiid, the man likely to be guarding the Serb, says his side are ready for that.
“I guess we’ll be ready for that”, he said.
“If that’s what they think they have to do to try to beat us, then they won’t hesitate to do that.”
James added: “Every game is its own test. No matter what happened in the first two, it’s about what goes down Thursday night.
“So we need to lock in our film session, lock in during the day on Thursday, and then come out and be ready to go.”
