DeMarcus Cousins added 13 points and Klay Thompson 12, and Carmelo Anthony scored seven points in his final game in worldwide play as he announced his retirement from USA Basketball following the win. But an embarrassing three losses and bronze at the 2004 Athens Games prompted an overhaul and the hiring of Krzyzewski by USA Basketball managing director Colangelo. “This is it for me”.
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Gasol, who will spend this upcoming National Basketball Association season in San Antonio and hasn’t committed to playing at Tokyo in 2020, and his teammates celebrated by piling on top of each other near center court.
In eight US games, Durant led the team in scoring by a large margin with 19 points per game. Though they played in several competitive games in Rio, Team USA blew out Serbia by 30 points to win their third straight gold and 15th overall.
Kevin Durant was the leading scorer for the USA with 30 points, while Nemanja Nedovic led Serbia with 14 points.
Durant and Anthony hugged late in the fourth quarter with the result long decided, and after the final buzzer, the Americans were dancing at mid-court in celebration.
“You never know what’s going to happen in four years”, he said.
An organized Serbian team produced enough trouble for the United States, as they did in the previous encounter, when the lead was exchanged five times and the game was tied four times in the first quarter. He scored 13 points to go along with 15 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Mike Krzyzewski, who will cede the reins of Team USA to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, guided his third gold-medal winning team, a record for US coaches. All 12 USA players scored in the game. The team only lost one game while he was on the bench, and went undefeated in Olympic play. Carmelo Anthony, the New York Knicks star who already took over the all-time Team USA lead in scoring, becomes the first American player to win a third gold.
United States of America 101, Spain 72: No one has been able to beat the US women’s basketball team at the Olympics for 20 years. In their first Olympic appearance in men’s basketball as an independent nation, Serbia comes away with the silver.
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The US squad’s first half was less than awesome, however, as they missed all six of their triples, shot just 5 of 17 early on and gave up the ball six times in the first quarter alone.
