Paul George Bounces Back As US Beats Serbia in Group Play
By Ben Gibson
Paul George bounced back from a so-so outing against Australia as the US beat Serbia.
Paul George and the US flirted with disaster.
The United States started off quickly against Serbia, but the European side wasn’t going to watch the game get away from them after trailing by 18 points in the first quarter.
Serbia fought back within three points late in the fourth quarter, but the US held them off for a 94-91 win.
Not that it was without drama.
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Paul George went for a steal and knocked the ball loose from Marko Simonovic with 5 seconds left. That set off a chain of events where Draymond Green needed to stop Simonovic, but in the process left Bogdan Bogdanovic open for a 3-pointer to potentially tie the game.
It missed, and PG and the US could breathe easily.
It was more chaos than a mistake by PG or Green. George ended up behind the play after tipping the ball away from Simonovic and into the backcourt, which forced Green to step out to help once the Serbian pressed the ball forward.
At that point, it is somewhat unreasonable to expect Kyrie Irving to have known he needed to rotate over to Bogdanovic before the whole sequence began, but thankfully for the US side, Bogdanovic’s shot rimmed out.
PG’s aggressive defense was a bit of a blessing and a curse late in the game, as he clearly kept Serbia from scoring easily with his high-pressure defense, but also gave up some points in the process when he made a mistake.
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Not long before that final play, George was going for a steal and got a piece of it. However, the ball ended up in Stefan Markovic’s hands in the corner, where he hit a 3-pointer to close Serbia’s deficit to five.
On the offensive end on the next possession, George clearly was looking to make up for the mistake and got open for his own 3-pointer that swished through the net.
George ended the night with 12 points on 4 of 10 shooting, going 2 of 6 from inside the arc, 2 of 4 outside of it, and 2 of 2 on free throws.
Along with the points, he had a team-high nine rebounds (five defensive, four offensive), four assists, and a steal to his name.
George was in a three-way tie (with Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony) for third in scoring for the US, while Irving led the squad with 15 points, followed by DeAndre Jordan with 13. Nikola Jokic led Serbia with 25.
After struggling against an Australian team that he felt played dirty, this was a much better performance for George.
Next: Alex Poythress Agrees to Deal with Indiana Pacers
The US faces France in the final game of group play on Sunday at 1:15 p.m.