They are here to win. We’re going to leave everything out there on Sunday and take that bronze.
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It was obvious Friday that Spain came into this tournament with gold-medal hopes, but the USA came in with gold-medal plans. One of them, on Durant, gave him a third foul, as technicals also count as personal fouls in global play.
“We’ve got to be serious and really get this because it is going to be a different game”, said forward Angel McCoughtry. Moreover, Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins both found themselves in early foul trouble.
Team USA, the only team to escape pool play with a ideal record despite issues defensively and poor shooting at times, is considered the heavy favorite to win gold for the third consecutive Games. USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I think we showed in our last game that they are not unbeatable”.
The calls kept both sides wondering how sensitive the calls would become. We never let them play easy.
USA forward Carmelo Anthony could be the first man to win three Olympic basketball gold medals as part of a team with 10 players seeking their first who came together only a month ago.
For Serbia to pull off another upset they’ll to find a way to generate offense outside of just Ana Dabovic off the drive. He is a jump-shooting, lockdown-defending reminder that American basketball-often maligned, sometimes legitimately-still produces more great players than any other country, and it’s not close.
“Our hearts right now are bleeding”, Scariolo said. We are winners. It’s painful. “We really want to accomplish this”. He scored from all over the floor, taking advantage of Team USA’s refusal to double the post and even stepping out and knocking down a couple 3-pointers. “I just wanted to make everything tough on him”.
Team Serbia will get a second chance at Team USA this tournament, this time with much higher stakes.
“Pau’s a great player”, Krzyzewski said.
But Spain’s experience, with eight holdovers from 2012, was good enough to keep the game from becoming a blowout.
“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”.
But the big key for us was DeAndre Jordan.
Even when they did start to play better in the third quarter, Serbia responded. “That just takes time, and we don’t have a lot of time. But they want to do that”. Spain beat Nigeria 96-87, crushed Lithuania 109-59 and topped Argentina 92-73 to battle back for a quarterfinal spot, then ran away from France 92-67 on Wednesday. They are the best.
Already without Marc Gasol, who broke his foot during the National Basketball Association season, Spain had to go portions of its training camp in July without Pau Gasol and Sergio Rodriguez while they handled free agency.
But Jordan came along and erased Navarro’s shot, his fourth block of the afternoon. Rodriguez’s left arm caught Jordan across the face. Jordan blocked Nikola Mirotic on Spain’s third possession, deflected a Sergio Llull pass on the next one, and forced Llull into shooting a tough, rainbow foul-line jumper two possessions after that.
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So here they are, again, playing for gold. We’re good. We’ve got good players. Coach K played Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant for most of the game, and cut the rotation down to nine players. I mean, my kids will have seen three Olympic finals – in China, England and Brazil.
