THE UNITED STATES predictably claimed the final gold medal of Rio 2016, cruising to a third successive Olympic men’s basketball title with a 96-66 thrashing of Serbia at Carioca Arena 1.
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A disputed call gave Sergio Rodriguez the chance to score two from the free-throw line with five seconds remaining, as Spain trailed by a point. With the win, Team USA – this 2016 version that was led by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Paul George and all the rest – has won 52 consecutive games in FIBA play (24 in the Olympics).
For U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski, it’s the third straight Olympics he has guided the U.S. men’s team to the gold medal.
The U.S. beat Serbia by just 94-91 in pool play, holding on when Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. With his seventh rebound in the game, he surpassed David Robinson with 125 boards in his career.
It was by now an exhibition, underlined by DeMar DeRozan’s breath-taking alley-oop, as the United States’ men won a 15th basketball gold.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team ended up right where expected. He had already become the leading scorer earlier in the tournament, capping an Olympic career that began with disappointment as a member of the US team that finished third in 2004. Earlier in the tournament, Anthony set the record for the most careers points by a United States of America basketball player at the Games.
With Durant and Anthony as the only returning Olympians, the remaining ten Americans win gold for their first time.
And there was no doubt they would Sunday once Durant heated up.
He had also scored 30 in the 2012 gold-medal game, after he poured in a USA -record 38 in one game en route to the MVP of the 2010 world basketball championship.
When the final horn sounded, the USA players shared long hugs with each other and then Krzyzewski. In their first Olympic appearance in men’s basketball as an independent nation, Serbia comes away with the silver. The heart of an worldwide power in the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs hadn’t qualified for the Olympics since gaining their independence in 2006.
The Americans also had tough, close games against Australia, Spain and France, and often looked vulnerable, particularly on defense. The Serbians held the lead a number of times in the early going, but just as the quarter ended, National Basketball Association superstar Kevin Durant hit a 3-pointer to give Team USA a 19-15 lead.
Kevin Durant was the star of the show, dropping. points, as the United States secured their third-straight Basketball gold to make up for the disappointment in Athens 12 years ago.
With the win, Carmelo Anthony won his third Olympic title, setting the record for most Olympic gold medals won by a single player.
Krzyzewski, an assistant on that team at the Barcelona Games, has long insisted that worldwide basketball has gotten too strong for anyone to win that easily again.
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Yet on Sunday, the Americans did.
