It all came down to this, the USA men’s basketball team cruised through the first few rounds. Team Serbia had a chance to upset them but Steph Curry, Lebron James, and company came back and won 95-91 in the semifinal to set up a matchup with Team France. The game was close headed into the fourth quarter but Curry took over late to elevate Team USA to the 98-87 win and capture another gold medal.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
LeBron James started things with an open dunk off the Kevin Durant assist. France’s Victor Wembanyama knocked down a deep three-pointer on the next possession, then Devin Booker responded with a wing three to put America back up.
Team France took the 7-5 lead a minute and a half into the game with a couple of layups from Nicholas Batum and Wembanyama. Team USA then went on a 9-4 run that a behind-the-back pass by James highlighted to Booker and capped off with a Jayson Tatum fastbreak dunk.
Anthony Edwards knocked down a couple of threes late as America was up 20-15 after one-quarter of play.
The French cut into the deficit early on in the second as Wembanyama got the put-back dunk, then Guerschon Yabusele and Matthew Strazel made back-to-back shots from downtown. Bilal Coulibaly’s dunk put France up 25-24 at the 7:11 mark of the period.
Yabusele got involved late in the period as he scored 10 points over the final 4:11. The French forward drew a foul on a three-point attempt, got an and-one poster on LeBron, and made an acrobatic layup as time expired. Despite the run by Yabusele, Team USA made a few shots from three including one by Jrue Holiday with 26 seconds left in the quarter.
Team USA was up 49-41 heading into halftime.
Steph Curry hit back-to-back threes midway into the third quarter to extend USA’s lead to 14. Wembanyama cut it to single digits with a tip-in and three, and then Evan Fourier caught fire by making a couple of shots from deep and a layup. James, Anthony Davis, and Edwards attacked the paint, scoring on a couple of dunks and a tip-in in the back half of the quarter.
The US offense tried to get one more shot off before the end of the quarter but Nando De Colo intercepted Edwards’s pass and drew a goaltending on Durant as the quarter came to an end.
The fourth quarter was Curry’s quarter.
America pushed the lead back to double digits early but then France went on a run to make it a three-point game with under three minutes to go. Curry closed things out late with three made shots from downtown over multiple defenders. His third three with 35 seconds left was the nail in the coffin as the US went up nine. Booker made a fast break layup for extra measure as America is headed home with gold around their neck for a fifth consecutive time in a 98-87 win over France.
BIG NUMBER: 18
As a team, the United States knocked down 18 out of 36 three-point attempts on Saturday compared to France’s nine makes on 30 attempts. Steph Curry led with eight made shots.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Steph Curry
Curry became possessed in the fourth quarter of the Olympics men’s basketball final on Saturday. The 36-year-old hit eight three-point shots, scoring a team-high 24 points as Team USA earned gold with a 98-87 win over France.