Team USA wins gold over France.
For the 4th straight time since 2008, the United States Men’s National Basketball Team has claimed gold in the Olympics, defeating France 87–82 making it the 16th time the U.S has claimed gold in the Summer Olympics in the game's history. Team USA was able to avenge their first loss to France in tonight’s win after losing to them in the first game of the prelims, which was the first game the U.S National Team had lost since 2004.
Team USA took a lot of criticism this summer as possibly the U.S one of the more disappointing teams in recent history after losing two games in their exhibition matchups and their opening loss to France in the Prelims. All those doubts and criticism were put to rest tonight after a huge third quarter from the U.S, surviving a 4th quarter France run and beating the Frenchmen to claim their 4th straight gold medal.
Kevin Durant was one of the biggest reasons the U.S Men’s National Basketball Team was able to claim gold in Tokyo, putting on huge performances in all games this summer, averaging 19 points a game for the U.S and capping it off with a 29 point performance in tonight’s final win. After the game Kevin Durant spoke on the gold win, calling this gold medal more icing on this cake, saying:
“We went through some real adversity, we lost a game in the tournament, we lost two exhibition games. We just fought through everything.”
Despite shooting a game-low 28% (9–32) from the three-point arc, Team USA was able to defeat France with the help of Kevin Durant and multiple players finishing in double figures. Boston Celtics young star Jayson Tatum finished second in points for the U.S, scoring 19 points on 3 of 5 (60%) shooting from three and 8 of 14 (57%) shooting overall from the floor. Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard both finished with 11 points in tonight’s final win, both helping the U.S stay alive in the 4th quarter of tonight’s and put the gold around their necks.