United States’ Carmelo Anthony (15) celebrates with teammate Kevin Durant (5) during a men’s semifinal round basketball game against Spain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016.
Advertisement
The United States men’s basketball team saved their best for last, capping an occasionally precarious Olympic tournament with a stress-free 96-66 rout of Serbia to capture yet another gold medal in the final event of the Rio Games.
Klay Thompson broke out of his Olympic scoring funk in a big way, dropping a team-high 22 points, while Kevin Durant chipped in with 14.
Anthony also picked up his third gold to go with a bronze, becoming the most decorated male in Olympic basketball history. But there may not be very much room for error; Serbia kept its last game against the United States of America to within three points, and the defense it played against Australia suggests that the Americans will have to fight hard for every open shot they get.
USA women left Rio with 27 golds – by far the most among any team of female Olympians at these games – and 61 medals total. Most of all, it made the Americans’ final hours on Brazilian soil their most comfortable of the whole trip.
Anthony did not stand out in the gold medal game – he had seven points, seven rebounds and two assists – but he did not have to.
“I think the way these players have felt, they’re given an opportunity to play for their country and you make the most of it”. Team USA began the game playing a lot of isolation offense and struggled to function as a unit on the offensive end.
The victory enabled New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony to earn his third gold medal, a new Games hoops record.
The triumph capped a brilliant tenure as Team USA head coach for Krzyzewski, who stepped down having guided the Americans to three consecutive Olympic gold medals.
Team USA did not want any surprises in Olympic men’s basketball, because the only surprise in Olympic men’s basketball would have been Team USA not winning gold. Coach “K” boasts a near flawless record of 88 wins and just one defeat (way back in 2006) in worldwide competition. “As they showed yesterday it doesn’t matter who’s out there we have a really good team”.
“We never said we was gonna run through everybody”, Anthony told ESPN earlier in the tournament.
TRIATHLON WINNER: Coming into the Rio Games, the US had never won an Olympic triathlon gold medal.
No American team has been deeper with Catchings as its 12th player.
There was a calm, relaxed atmosphere at the final practice for the USA women’s basketball team. That sparked a two-game win streak that lifted them into the medal round on a tie-breaker, followed by wins over Croatia and Australia.
It was a tough ending after an impressive run for Serbia in its first Olympics as an independent nation. At the end of the day, they beat us by just six points.
Advertisement
Let this be a reminder to the likes of Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Andre Drummond, James Harden and Damian Lillard, and whatever National Basketball Association players could have come to Rio to help the USA defend its gold medal but opted to stay home and focus on rest and relaxation: Don’t be the ones who squander this. The Serbs’ Bogdanovic missed a wide-open 3-pointer with 2 seconds remaining to potentially send the game into overtime.
