But Spain was able to keep the gap from getting any bigger and chipped away in the final minutes, the margin ending up smaller than in the previous matchups.
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Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi were once again the leaders for the United States.
The US team missed 13 of their first 20 shots from the floor and half of their eight free throws during a first quarter that saw five lead changes.
Nemanja Nedovic led Serbia with 14 points.
A narrow 82-76 win in the semifinal against Spain on August 19 was the fourth time in five games that the USA won by 10 points or less. Kevin Durant got going offensively, finishing the game with 30 points on 10-for-19 shooting from the field, and Paul George’s defense on Serbian guard Milos Teodosic kept the silver medalists from getting much of anything done on the other end.
Of the newcomers, DeMarcus Cousins provided the USA a big spark off the bench.
With the victory Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson joined one of basketball’s most exclusive clubs, becoming just the eighth and ninth players to win Olympic and FIBA world championship gold and an NBA title. They visited this city 10 times in the past year. They beat Australia and Croatia to make it to the Olympic final.
Center DeMarcus Cousins played one of his better games on Sunday, giving a boost to the Americans.
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.
No matter what happens in Tokyo, however, today the American men’s basketball team added another gold to the United States’ gold count – a nice addition as the Olympics wrap up on their final day. In Rio, Auriemma coached five University of CT alumnae: Taurasi, Bird, Moore, Stewart and Tina Charles – all of whom won NCAA under Auriemma’s tutelage at UConn.
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.
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Through the first quarter of Team USA’s gold medal match against Serbia, it was reasonable to think this would be another close game that would come down to the wire.
