Not since Athens 2004, when they had to settle for a rare bronze, have the Americans failed to win this competition with far and away the biggest, richest and deepest talent pool from which to choose.
With another roster packed full of premier NBA talent, including the likes of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, the USA have again reached the semi-final stage in Paris, beating Brazil 122-87 in the last eight on Tuesday having easily topped a group containing Serbia, South Sudan and Puerto Rico.
Steve Kerr’s squad that contains no fewer than 12 NBA All-Stars have already beaten the Serbians once in this tournament already, winning 110-84 in their opening game on July 28 after legendary duo James and Durant combined to great effect.
24 points from Curry also saw the USA come out on top 105-79 in an initial exhibition game held in Abu Dhabi last month.
Despite the emphatic margin of those back-to-back victories, the Americans will not be resting on their laurels in advance of tonight’s semi-final showdown.
Serbia possess arguably the best player on the planet in the Denver Nuggets’ three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, with other NBA representation including Atlanta Hawks shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic.
Serbia won an overtime thriller against Australia to get to the semis, in pursuit of their first Olympic medal since winning silver following a final defeat by the USA in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
This is the second Olympic men’s 5×5 basketball semi-final taking place on Thursday, following the earlier clash between Victor Wembanyama’s France and European rivals Germany at 4:30pm BST.
USA vs Serbia is scheduled to get underway at 8pm BST at Accor Arena in Bercy, Paris.
How to watch USA vs Serbia
TV channel and live stream: In the UK, there should be updates from the match on the BBC and Eurosport.
You can watch it in full live online via the Discovery+ Paris 2024 app and website.
Live blog: Follow Day 14 at the Olympics live with Standard Sport’s rolling blog, featuring analysis from reporters Matt Majendie and Malik Ouzia in Paris.
