"I'm Kevin Durant," the former NBA MVP once said. "You know who I am."

And after a team-high 23-point performance to lead the United States to a fourth-straight gold medal match, the world does too.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. men's basketball team will try for its fourth consecutive gold medal after routing Australia 97-78 in the semifinal match Thursday

  • Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant scored a team-high 23 points to lead Team USA to victory; Devin Booker had 20 points, and Jrue Holiday had 11 points with 8 rebounds and 8 assists

  • After falling into a 15-point deficit, Team USA found their rhythm and rode a 28-4 run to retake control of the game

  • The U.S. will face France in its gold medal match on Friday after the French team beat Slovenia 90-89

Durant and the U.S. men's basketball team routed Australia 97-78 to bring Team USA one step closer to a fourth-consecutive gold medal after a rocky start to Olympic play. The U.S. is now 9-0 against Australia in Olympic play.

After falling into a 15-point deficit, Team USA found their rhythm and rode a 28-4 run to retake control of the game. They never looked back.

“They hit us with a nice punch,” Durant said after the game. “We knew that team was going to get us down early and see how we’d respond.”

Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker added 20 points for the U.S., and NBA champion Jrue Holiday added 11 with 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

“Obviously, getting down 15 points you know you’ve got to bring it up a notch and that’s what we did,” Booker said.

“There were a lot of guys on this team that had straight faces and were ready to play when we were down 15,” Durant said, adding: “They came out and hit us with a nice haymaker, and we were able to get back up and get that lead back.”

The U.S. kept misfiring from behind the arc and even had some shaky moments at the rim — Milwaukee Bucks player Khris Middleton had an open dunk attempt coming off the baseline but slammed the ball into the front of the rim.

For Australia, Durant’s soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets teammate Patty Mills had 15 points. The Australians were hoping for their first shot at gold after finishing fourth four times at the Olympics — but will now have a chance to win bronze.

“They’ve got a lot of firepower so we knew that if we gave them an inch, they would be able to take a mile,’’ Australia’s Matisse Thybulle said. “I think we played well, played hard for the majority of the game but they don’t need much to get going.”

The U.S., which at one point in the match against Australia looked like they would be playing for their first bronze since 2004, will now look to win their fourth-straight gold medal.

Booker praised Durant’s leadership, noting he “has been in this situation before, and he's leading us as such.”

“He's been a great leader for us, and we feed off his energy,” Booker added.

The road to gold won’t be a cakewalk for the U.S. — they will face France, who handed the U.S. its first Olympic loss since 2004 in their opening match this year. France beat Slovenia 90-89 later Thursday, handing NBA phenom Luka Doncic his first loss in international play.

"I'm thrilled with the victory, obviously, but when I looked him in the eyes, I felt badly," Team USA coach Gregg Popovich said. "Because they want it at bad as any of us, that was a little bit sad. But that's what we all do, we all try to win."

"When you are a great team and you're playing a team who feels that it's going to be tough to beat us, they're going to come out and play their best brand of basketball," Durant said. "They're going to play perfect basketball, and I felt like that's what they did in that first half, and once we went down three going into halftime, I felt like we had the game in hand."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.