USA Basketball injury update: LeBron received four stitches, Embiid rested for sore ankle

The US is just days away from a semifinal against Nikola Jokic and Serbia, a match that will be more exciting than their previous group stage encounter. However, it still comes with some bumps and bruises.

LeBron James left the game in the third quarter after an accidental elbow just above his left eye from Brazilian Georginho De Paula. He needed four stitches to close it, U.S. coach Steve Kerr said after the game. LeBron returned to the bench in the fourth quarter — just as the crowd erupted for French swimmer Léon Marchand, who had entered the building — but did not return to the court because the match was already decided at that point. After the match, LeBron told ESPN’s Marc Spears“I’m fine. I just got an unintentional elbow.”

Joel Embiid led the US in the first half with 14 points, but did not play in the second half after Kerr told him he was having trouble with his ankle. Just like with LeBron, with the US leading 27 points at halftime, there was no need to push Embiid to return. Anthony Davis started the second half and the US sailed to victory.

Kerr wants both LeBron and Embiid to play against Serbia.

Embiid because he’s a big body brought in partly specifically for this matchup against Jokic — as great as Davis is as a defender, Jokic can punish him from the inside. With LeBron, the U.S. began to pull away from Serbia in the group stage as the Serbs tried to double LeBron on points and he sliced ​​them up with his passing. Both of those things will matter Thursday (3 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock) if the US wants to play for gold.