“This is where we wanted to be”, Warriors forward Kevin Durant said. He dropped 30 points to lead Team USA to a 30-point win and claim his second career gold medal.
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Kevin Durant scored 30 points in the final game with the national team for Mike Krzyzewski, who took the Americans back to the top and leaves with them there after becoming the first coach to win three Olympic gold medals.
Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] sat me down and showed me some film of 2010 and he was like, ‘I want to see that guy again’. In their last game, Team USA’s defense restricted Serbia’s shooting to just 38 percent from the floor and a disastrous 4-of-24 from deep.
“When I’m smiling out there, when I’m screaming and beating my chest, showing emotion, that’s really when I’m lost in the game”.
Stewart got the spurt started with two free throws. “We’re here to do we’ve got to do and we came here to get it to go”, USA guard Paul George said. “We talked about it all summer, and to be here for the final game, to win the gold, for all the marbles, we like our chances”.
And what Anthony said after that loss stuck with Krzyzewski so much that he used it to sum up his time with USA Basketball a decade later. Taurasi then hit consecutive 3-pointers – her first points of the game – as the Americans scored 10 straight.
“It’s mind boggling when you think about it what this team has been able to accomplish, this program”, said Auriemma. They only failed to take the title three times, to the Soviet Union in the 1972 Munich Games and at Seoul in 1988, where they wound up third, just like in Athens, when Argentina won the gold. But when Team USA is interested and cares, it imposes its will. They won by almost 40 points a game, but fell short of the record 102.4 points the 1996 team averaged.
The first half ended with the Americans ahead 52-29 and playing like the confident, flamboyant side most expected to see once the roster was named.
They weren’t the Dream Team, or even the Redeem Team – not even close. He won six in Rio, while Biles and us swimmer Katie Ledecky each won five to lead to lead a big haul from American women. Durant led the US with six. DeAndre Jordan jumped around like a kid fueled by chocolate and soda.
The United States gave fans glimpses of their dominant best in Rio but their play did not always live up to the high expectations that follow them to every Olympics. “We said it was a learning experience”.
United States’ Carmelo Anthony (15) dunks against Serbia during the men’s gold medal basketball game at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday.
Whether his words were a defiant answer to Trump’s challenge, a sign of his alignment with Trump’s views, or just coincidentally related to the Trump slogan, Americans can all agree on one thing: We’re proud of our boys for bringing home that gold.
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“It wasn’t as easy as we would’ve liked it, but this journey we had here in Rio, you can’t ask for nothing more than that”.
