U.S. MEN’S HOOPS TEAM WINS GOLD
Durant scores 30, Anthony earns third gold for Americans.
The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team ended up right where expected.
The Americans got their gold, and they did it easily.
In a tournament that had been tough, the U.S. convincingly won its third straight gold medal, beating Serbia 96-66 on Sunday.
After a few close calls earlier in the Olympics, this was no contest. Kevin Durant scored 30 points and helped the Americans jump out to a huge lead by halftime.
“To go home as gold medalists and leave Coach K off with another gold was one of our main goals as well,” Durant said.
Paul George said he and his teammates took out their frustrations on Serbia after hearing all the talk about them being less talented than previous U.S. squads and not blowing teams out.
“We did a good job of bottling all that up and unleashed it on Serbia,” George said.
It was 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.
Carmelo Anthony also picked up his third gold to go with a bronze, becoming the most decorated male in Olympic basket-
ball history.
The U.S. beat Serbia by just 94-91 in pool play, holding on when Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a 3-pointer at buzzer. This rematch looked nothing like that meeting, but it did resemble the final of the 2014 Basketball World Cup, which the Americans won 129-92.
“To come out there and play as well as we did against a team that had stepped up their play as well, it showed that we came together at the right time,” Durant said.
Anthony checked back into the rout in the final minutes so he could grab a seventh rebound, passing David Robinson for U.S. record with the 125th in his Olympic career. He had already become the leading scorer earlier in the tournament, capping an Olympic career that began with disappointment as a member of the U.S. team that finished third in 2004.
The Americans haven’t lost since, winning 25 straight in the Olympics.
“I know there was kind of a lot of buzz around us not playing well a couple of games, two, three games in the early round,” Anthony said, “but the way that we locked in and the way that we focused in to be able to have this gold medal around our necks was special.”
A few of the victories were more difficult than usual in this tournament, where half the Americans’ eight games were decided by 10 points or fewer.
Krzyzewski said it didn’t matter how the Americans won, that there would be no questions as long as they did.
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 U.S.-record 38 in one game en route to the MVP of the 2010 world basketball championship. He is already the Americans’ No. 2 career scorer in the Olympics in just two appearances.
When the final horn sounded, the U.S. players shared long hugs with each other and then Krzyzewski.
“This team kept getting better and even those three games in pool play, we had not played that type of game
against that type of level of opponent,” Krzyzewski said. “We said it was a learning experience and our guys did learn and we put it to good practice.”
DeAndre Jordan went to the stands at Carioca Arena and collected an American flag, which he initially wrapped himself in like a blanket before holding it high over his head for all to see. After a slow start in Rio, there was no doubt about who was on top.
Bronze medal game: Pau Gasol scored 31 points in perhaps his final Olympic game and Spain added a bronze to its collection with an 89-88 win over Australia, again denied its first men’s basketball medal. Sergio Rodriguez made two free throws with 5.4 seconds left and the Spaniards, who captured silver in 2008 at Beijing and the London Games, got the defensive stop they needed as Australia fumbled the ball away on its last possession.
Patty Mills scored 30 and David Anderson 15 for Australia, which played almost the entire second half without Andrew Bogut. The 7-footer fouled out less than two minutes into the third quarter.