U.S. women defeat France, 86-67, for a trip to the gold-medal game

Reporting from Rio de Janeiro â€”  Even without point guard and four-time Olympian Sue Bird, the United States isn’t exactly ripe for an upset.

The Americans can’t quite operate at the peak of their powers without Bird, who stirs the offense into a potent cocktail that’s too strong for U.S. opponents.

That much was evident in the U.S.’s 86-67 semifinal victory over France on Thursday.

The offense was choppy, especially in the first half, but the deep U.S. squad had more than enough to advance to Saturday’s gold-medal game against Spain. The Americans came into the semifinals with a 41.7-point average margin of victory. It was a little trickier Thursday.

“You could see something’s missing,� Angel McCoughtry said. “Sue makes such a big difference. The way the flow of the game was going was different.�

So were the roles some of the U.S. players had to fill with Bird out. Diana Taurasi shifted more of her focus to distributing on offense and led the team with four assists while scoring a team-high 18 points.

“It took us a while to get used to it,� Taurasi said. “I had to change my mind-set. When Sue’s out, you forget how much she does for this team. We have so many scorers that she finds a way to get everyone in their spots, to get everyone touches and she sacrifices for that.�

Maya Moore added 15 points for the U.S., which led, 40-36, at halftime. The Americans clamped down defensively coming out of the locker room and outscored France, 25-8, in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.

Bird was cheering on the bench with every U.S. run and offered words of wisdom at halftime in “her beautiful voice,� according to McCoughtry. Bird said she was relieved that her injury was only a knee capsule sprain — a positive prognosis for long-term recovery — but she did not know whether she would be available Saturday.

“I don’t think you get to where any of us are without being smart,� Bird said. “I’m not going to be stupid about this. This is your body. You have to listen to it. You don’t want to put yourself in danger, but if I can play, I’m definitely playing.�

Coach Geno Auriemma said Bird would test the injury at practice Friday. After Thursday’s game, Auriemma has confidence the U.S. is ready to face Spain even if Bird can’t play.

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Spain defeated Serbia, 68-54, in the other semifinal Thursday.

“We’ve been able to respond to whenever different things have come up,� Auriemma said. “In order to be considered a great team, you have to win the whole thing, and we still have one more win to go. But I think great teams have the ability to win a lot of different ways. [Thursday] we had to win a little bit differently than we won the other six games.�

For one, it was a little closer than the U.S. is used to — and not as smooth as when Bird is on the court.

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Twitter: @ChristopherHine