Durant powers US into hoops semis
Back and forth they went, the three-time defending Olympic champions from the U.S. on one side, the reigning basketball World Cup champions from Spain on the other. The difference: The Americans had Kevin Durant. He’s never gone to the Olympics and not won gold — and clearly, doesn’t plan on that changing. Durant scored 29 points to keep his quest for a third Olympic title alive, and the Americans are headed to the medal round after ousting Spain 95-81 on Tuesday in a quarterfinal matchup at the Tokyo Games.
“We’ve just got to finish it. Got to finish it,” Durant said. “We’re supposed to be here. For us, it’s about getting the gold.”
Jayson Tatum scored 13 and Jrue Holiday added 12 for the U.S., which will play either Australia in the semifinals on Thursday. The Americans also gave themselves the chance of extending a streak like none other in Olympic basketball history — in all 18 of their previous Olympic men’s basketball appearances, they’ve gone home with a medal.
Ricky Rubio was brilliant for Spain, scoring 38 points — a Spanish men’s Olympic record, and the most ever scored by a U.S. men’s Olympic opponent, topping the mark of 35 by Puerto Rico’s Butch Lee in 1976.
Sergio Rodriguez added 16 and Willy Hernangomez scored 10 for Spain.
Dominating in diving: Xie Siyi and Wang Zongyuan gave China another 1-2 finish in Olympic diving, claiming gold and silver in men’s 3-meter springboard Tuesday.
The Chinese divers held the top two spots after both the preliminaries and the semifinals, and it was more of the same in the finals.
Xie broke down in tears when the scores for his final dive were posted, a string of 9.0s and 9.5s that clinched the victory with 558.75 points. Wang came over to give his teammate a hug.
The biggest drama was for the silver, but Wang nailed his final dive to finish with 534.90 and hold off Jack Laugher of Britain.
Long the world’s dominant diving nation, China has been near-perfect at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre with five gold medals in six events.
The only slip came in men’s 10-meter synchronized, where Chen Aisen ad Cao Yuan settled for silver in an upset win by the British team of Tom Daley and Matty Lee.
Otherwise, the Chinese have captured every medal available to them. They won the other three synchronized events and have gone 1-2 in the first two individual events of the games.
Xie and Wang added to the gold they won in 3-mter synchronized.
Upsets in track cycling: Germany twice broke the world record on the way to beating Britain for the gold medal in the women’s team pursuit on Tuesday, while the Dutch knocked off the Brits to win the men’s team sprint in the Izu Velodrome.
The German squad of Franziska Brausse, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein and Mieke Kroeger roared past the Italians in the first round of the women’s team pursuit to set a new record, then shattered it against the two-time and reigning champs in the finals. The Germans’ time of 4:04.249 was more than six seconds better than their finals counterpart.
The world champion U.S. women’s pursuit team pulled away from Canada to claim the bronze medal.
A few minutes later, the Netherlands knocked the British from their perch atop the men’s team sprint. The threesome of Jeffrey Hoogland, Roy van den Berg and Harrie Lavreysen stopped the clock in 41.369 seconds to snap the streak of three straight gold medals won by the powerful British team going back to the 2008 Games in Beijing.
The new-look British squad of Ryan Owens, Jack Carlin and Jason Kenny led by the slimmest margins after the first lap but was unable to keep up the pace. They finished in 44.589 seconds to claim the silver medal.
France took advantage of Australia’s ragged ride to earn the bronze medal in their matchup.
Belarus sprinter feared punishment: A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who had a public feud with officials from her team at the Tokyo Games said Tuesday that they “made it clear” she would face punishment if she returned home to an autocratic government that has relentlessly stifled any criticism.
Waiting to leave Japan to seek refuge in Europe, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she hopes she can continue her career, but for now her safety is the priority. After she criticized the management of her team on social media, she accused officials of hustling her to the airport and trying to put her on a plane back to Belarus.
In the dramatic standoff, several countries offered help, and Poland granted her a humanitarian visa Monday. She plans to fly to Warsaw later in the week.
Team officials “made it clear that, upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment,” the 24-year-old sprinter told The AP in a videocall interview from Tokyo.
“There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”