Team USA’s run to the gold medal in Paris at the 2024 Olympics was incredible to watch. Not only because it was perhaps the last time Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant will play for Team USA, but also because the U.S. was actually challenged on their path, especially in the semifinal against Serbia and the gold medal game against France.
In the semifinal against Serbia, specifically, the United States trailed 76-63 after three quarters. FIBA rules and game lengths made that type of deficit much harder to overcome than in the NBA, but Team USA was not phased. They put together a 32-15 fourth quarter with the whole world watching to win and advance to the gold medal game. And one of the people most intently watching was Lakers guard Austin Reaves.
Reaves was actually in his car when the fourth quarter began that day, and he was so intrigued by what Team USA was putting together that he watched the rest of the game on the side of the road.
“I remember the (semifinals), I was going to golf and I looked at the score – I was watching it here actually and leaving to go golf – and it was like 10 or eight or something at the time. I stopped on the side of the road in the middle of traffic and watched the game.
“I watched the Serbia game on the side of the road and the France game at home. It was just – I forgot who I texted – the Serbia game in the fourth quarter was some of the best basketball I have ever watched. Everybody was locked in defensively, I think other than a couple offensive rebounds that Serbia got it was almost a perfect fourth quarter for the USA team. Seeing those guys buy into one goal, and that was winning, was beautiful. That’s kind of how I approach everything, the main thing is to win. You could see that the goal was to go win gold.”
Team USA’s performances in the semifinal and gold medal games were absolutely legendary, especially from the three stars in James, Curry and Durant. And for Reaves to say that it is some of the best basketball he’s ever watched shows just how deadset Team USA was on coming home with the gold.
It was certainly a fun and exciting experience, but they meant business. And they showed it in the way they dominated at the biggest moments of the tournament.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves ranked in NBARank list
Austin Reaves is the first Laker to appear on the 2024-25 edition of the NBARank list, which is compiled by a panel of 150 experts voting on upwards of 15,000 individual player matchups to determine the 100 best players in the NBA heading into the season. He landed at No. 72 after a No. 66 ranking last season.
There are no other Lakers on the 100-51 section of the list, but L.A. is guaranteed to have two players in the top 50 with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Davis and James ranked No. 10 and No. 9, respectively, last season, but the former should see a bump after an elite 2023-24 campaign.
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