The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team won its third straight gold medal and did it easily, beating Serbia 96-66 on Sunday.
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After receiving his third gold medal following the game, Carmelo Anthony became the most decorated male in Olympic basketball history.
Serbia, which missed the 2008 and 2012 Games, never found their rhythem of typical team work as the game was more like an National Basketball Association one. He ruled out returning for Tokyo 2020.
“I know this is the end”. This is it for me. I committed to this in ’04. I’ve seen the worst and I’ve seen the best and I stuck with it – we stuck with it.
Durant’s monster second quarter ended any notion of an upset for Serbia and put the United States on the gold-medal stand for the third consecutive Olympics with a 96-66 victory over the Serbians, who surprised in Rio by taking the silver.
USA Basketball’s road to the gold medal was far from smooth, but despite having three single-digit victories in an eight-game tournament, the young team got the job done.
“It was just a real different game today”, coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
In a rematch of their August 12 pool play game in which they won by just three points, Team USA wasted little time pulling away in this one.
America were struggling for fluidity but as the first quarter came to a close Durant landed their first three-pointer, giving them a 19-15 lead that they quickly built on.
That raised doubts about the ability of the newly assembled team to play as a unit and handle the perpetual motion of worldwide play. The thing is, when one of those players is feeling it as Durant was on Sunday, even that brand of basketball looks effective. I’m glad I did what I did, I stepped up to the challenge.
Cousins had 13 points and 15 rebounds in the game.
Serbia played the U.S. to a three point game in pool play, but the USA led 79-43 at the end of three quarters and led by as many as 41 points in the game.
“We’re a confident group”.
“This is where we wanted to be”, Warriors forward Kevin Durant said. Serbia outscored the Americans in the second half 50-44.
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Serbia actually outscored the Americans 23-17 in the final quarter of the Olympics, but it was nowhere near enough to make up for their dismal second and third quarters.
