PER FIBA: In an Olympic Gold Medal Game for the ages, Kevin Durant took matters into his own hands and nearly set a new scoring record in the process as the USA pull of an 87-82 thriller over France.
The USA men win their fourth straight gold medal, a feat which they haven’t achieved since the 1960s.
France pick up their third silver medal, with all three defeats coming at the hands of Team USA in the Finals, first back in 1948, then 2000, and now in 2021.
Turning point: Frank Ntilikina knocked down a three-pointer to make it a one-possession game at 73-70 with five minutes to play, but the response from Team USA was off the charts. Damian Lillard hit a pair of long contested two-pointers, Jrue Holiday added two more points, and once Jayson Tatum hit the three-pointer with 3:00 to play, the score said 82-72.
France tried to come back, got it to 85-82 when Nando De Colo made his free throws with 10.2 seconds to go, but Durant’s free throws sealed the deal and set the final score in this one.
Game hero: Durant had 30 points in the Final in 2012, followed it up with 30 more in 2016, tying the all-time mark set by compatriot Adrian Dantley back in 1976.
This time around, the man who refers to himself as Easy Money Sniper looked set to break the record as he had 21 by halftime, setting a simply unstoppable scoring pace for France to keep up with at the start.
They slowed him down in the second half, basically playing 4v4 with a man glued to Durant, but it didn’t help. Durant finished the game with 29 points, done on 9-of-18 shooting.
He also became the first Team USA player in Olympics history to score 100+ points in three different Olympic Games tournaments.
Stats don’t lie: France turned the ball over 18 times, enough for the USA to take a 20-12 advantage in points from turnovers, way too much for a team that feasts on fastbreak basketball like the USA.
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