Kevin Durant scored 29 points and grabbed six rebounds as Team USA beat France 87-82 to clinch their fourth consecutive gold
Saturday 7 August 2021 12:13, UK
The Americans expected nothing less. And in the end, their Olympic reign continues.
Kevin Durant scored 29 points and joined Carmelo Anthony as the only three-time men's gold medallists in Olympic basketball history after the U.S. held off France 87-82 on Saturday morning in Saitama, ending a summer that started with sputters but closed with celebration.
Durant sealed it by knocking down two free throws with 8.8 seconds left, making the outcome academic. The lead was five, France's final possession was irrelevant, and it was over. The U.S. players gathered for a hug at midcourt, Durant, Bam Adebayo and Draymond Green wrapped themselves in American flags, and the journey was complete.
Jayson Tatum, on fire off the bench, finished with 19 points, while Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday each scored 11 for the U.S.
Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert each put up 16 points for France, a country which now has four silver medals - all coming after gold medal game defeats to the U.S. Guerschon Yabusele scored 13, Nando de Colo had 12 and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot scored 11.
Frank Ntilikina's 3-pointer got France within 73-70 with 5:42 left, but the U.S. had a quick answer in the form of a 9-2 run that restored a 10-point lead on Tatum's 3-pointer.
From there, it was just a matter of finishing the job. The summer started with two exhibition losses, the Olympics with a loss to France, but none of that seemed to matter much at the end.
The mission was accomplished: Gold, again. The 16th time in 19 Olympic tries for the U.S.
For some, it adds to family legacies. Jrue Holiday now is an Olympic gold medallist, just as his wife Lauren was, twice with the U.S. women's soccer team. JaVale McGee now has Olympic gold, just like his mother Pamela won with the U.S. women in basketball at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
For Milwaukee Bucks teammates Holiday and Khris Middleton, it's admission into a rare club: Before now, only Scottie Pippen (who did it twice), Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving had won an NBA title and Olympic gold in the same year.
And for U.S. coach Gregg Popovich, it completes an Olympic journey that started half a century ago. He was playing for the United States Air Force Academy and tried unsuccessfully to make the 1972 U.S. Olympic team.
"The powers that be actually selected Doug Collins instead of me, it's hard to believe," Popovich joked earlier this summer. He had it all to do after accepting the task of replacing three-time gold medallist head coach Mike Krzyzewski as the man in charge for this Olympic cycle.
"Being part of the Olympics has been a dream," Popovich said.
The U.S. missed its first eight 3-point tries before Durant got one to drop with 2:04 left in the opening quarter, starting what became a 21-8 run by the Americans on the way to a 39-26 lead midway through the second quarter.
France responded, closing the half on a 13-5 spurt and getting within 44-39 at the break, then within two early in the third quarter.
And after the U.S. briefly led by 14, Nicolas Batum, who saved his team with a last-second block to close out a win over Slovenia in the semi-finals, beat the third-quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer that cut the U.S. lead to 71-63 entering the fourth.
Ultimately, however, it wasn't enough as Team USA held on to take the title in Tokyo.
