PARIS — The headlines and headlines were gathering like storm clouds on the horizon. The U.S. basketball team was 17 points behind Serbia — Serbia? — and you could hear the knives being sharpened.

Justified. Egotistical. GreedyMaybe even a Woke up or Un-American thrown in there too. When you play for the USA men’s basketball team, there are expectations, and one of those expectations is that you won’t play against damn Serbia.

And besides, when you come from a league that has taken some clear political positions in recent years, there are a lot of people who are happy about failure, no matter what letters are on your chest.

Fortunately for the United States, and unfortunately for the sportscasters and Twitter agitators of the world, America has Stephen Curry. And Steph solves a whole lot of problems.

Curry, competing in his first Olympic Games, finally found his rhythm Thursday night, scoring 36 of the U.S.’s 95 points in a four-point win over Serbia. He started hot, scoring 14 of the U.S.’s first 15 points, but then got a little cocky and missed a three-pointer from just inside the midfield … and as it turned out, that miss was all Serbia needed to launch a monster first-half offense.

“They came out and made a lot of difficult shots in the first half,” Curry admitted.

Devin Booker put it more succinctly: “First they punched us in the face.”

Curry remained in top form, but the rest of the USA couldn’t keep up with him, and the result was a game that ranged from infuriating to insane to desperate. Team USA trailed by 17 points, and only the fact that some of the world’s best basketball players remembered who they were and played accordingly allowed the Americans to escape what was surely the most humiliating defeat in Olympic history. (Another provocative headline has disappeared.)

Anthony Edwards, the first American to speak after the game, exuded the confidence you feel when you know you’ve avoided total disaster. “We never thought, ‘Oh no, it’s over,'” he said, smiling. “We knew we were going to turn it around. We didn’t know when it was going to happen.”

This happened in the fourth quarter, when the USA overcame a 13-point deficit and finally took the lead on Curry’s three-point run with 2:24 left in the game.

“Steph, that was a divine performance,” Kevin Durant said. “Shot after shot, a steal and a layup to finish, he was everywhere tonight. That was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen from him.”

Considering Durant was his teammate in one of Curry’s MVP seasons and two of Curry’s championship years, that’s high praise.

The only reason the U.S. got through at all was because Curry didn’t have to do everything on his own. LeBron James, who spent the entire game throwing himself at the wall that is Serbia’s three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, added 17 points, 12 rebounds and a game-ending steal to extend the lead. Joel Embiid found his knack for 19 points, despite still being showered with boos for choosing to play for America instead of France. Durant, who was in foul trouble for most of the evening, sank final shots to secure the win.

“You see who they are,” Edwards said of his teammates. “These are the moments when they showed the world who they are.”

Afterward, Durant was in a philosophical mood. “I love representing our country. We all love representing our country,” he said. “A lot of stupid things happen in our country, but a lot of great things happen where we come from.”

“There are so many divisions in our country, so many divisions in our world,” he continued. “Sports is an opportunity to come together and compete, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be friendly competition. We can all go home and respect the game we played tonight, both countries. We’re going to come out here the next time we play and do the same thing.”

So, yes…watch out, France. Chef Curry is cooking now.