Daily Times

Team USA recovered from a shaky start to beat Australia 97-78 and reach their fourth consecutive Olympic gold-medal basketball game at Tokyo 2020.Australia had led by 15 points in the second quarter before the three-time defending champions launched a 34-point run to overturn the deficit. That comeback was spearheaded by Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the latter outscoring Australia single-handedly in the third quarter.France or Slovenia await in the final.They play in Thursday’s other semi-final at 12:00 BST for a place in Saturday’s gold medal game. “I’ve got to give credit to Australia, they came out and hit us with a nice haymaker,” said Durant, who top-scored for Team USA with 23 points, with Booker adding 20.”We were able to get some momentum going to the half. Guys came out with that intensity, we made shots as well. “I feel like everything aligned for us in that second half, and that’s who we are.”I think [teams] want to get us down early in hopes that we panic. We didn’t. We came out in the third quarter with amazing energy and fight.”