“It was therapy for me after making a big change in my life”, he told The Vertical after scoring 30 points in the United States’ win over Serbia for gold on Sunday.
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Rio de Janeiro, Aug. 22, (GNA/dpa) – Kevin Durant was on fire again as the United States trounced Serbia 96-66 in the basketball final for the last gold medal on offer at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics which were to close later Sunday.
Since Colangelo took over Team USA in 2005, the Americans have won seven FIBA titles, including gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
“I can’t let anybody steal my joy”, Durant said, presumably addressing critics of his free-agency decisions.
Serbia shot just 4-for-24 from 3-point range and the USA had a big advantage on the offensive glass once again.
“We came here and won in spite of what people were saying about this group being less talented, not blowing teams out, not putting teams away”, forward Paul George said.
During his stay in Brazil, Anthony became the leading scorer in USA history and he returned late in the second half of Sunday’s rout just so he could snatch one rebound and move past David Robinson on the career list. The U.S. reserves scored 55 points compared to just 23 points for the Spanish bench.
The Americans stretched their Olympic win streak to 25 games and overall decade-long winning run to 76 games.
The US beat Serbia on the board by 54-33 and led by as many as 41 points.
The newly assembled team they led were occasionally challenged in Rio, raising some doubts about the outcome.
It was the 27-year-old Durant – earning his second Olympic gold with the win – who led the team all through the contest, greatly aided by Kyrie Irving, who had won his second National Basketball Association ring with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Kyle Lowry. He is already the Americans’ No. 2 career scorer in the Olympics in just two appearances.
Serbia was on a run of impressive performances in their own right. The heart of an global power in the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs hadn’t qualified for the Olympics since gaining their independence in 2006.
They dropped three games in the group stage but had the look of a team that could challenge the Americans after almost knocking them off earlier in the tournament and overwhelming Australia in the semifinals.
“The US coaching staff may be the best in the world, so some of our guns were not loaded as in the first game. They did a great job”, Djordjevic said. “Each of their 12 guys can do that”.
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Diana Taurasi and the Americans played almost flawless basketball in Rio, and were never challenged. They beat Australia and Croatia to make it to the Olympic final. 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. “We’re here to do we’ve got to do and we came here to get it to go”, USA guard Paul George said.
