The men’s team of basketball from the United States arrived at the Tokyo Olympics surrounded by mistrust, with the right to defeat in friendlies before the Games to Australia and Nigeria. In the Tokyo debut, against France, defeat by 83 x 76. This Saturday (7), the North Americans once again met the tormentor of the first phase, this time in the final, but the result was different: victory by 87-82, which guaranteed the fourth consecutive American Olympic gold medal. After the glory in Beijing-2008, London-2012 and Rio 2016, now the party is in Tokyo-2020.
The recent retrospective also pointed to an 89-79 defeat of the Americans by the French in the Basketball World Cup, which eliminated the Americans from the title dispute in 2019.
The fourth consecutive Olympic title won by the United States is the second longest streak in the sport’s history. The longest streak of gold medals in the history of the Olympics also belongs to the United States, which won seven consecutive gold medals between the Berlin-1936 Olympics and Rome-1968. It is the 16th US men’s team gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games.
The name of the game against France was Kevin Durant. The main star of the current version of Dream Team, the shirt 7 finished as a basket, with 29 points, in addition to six rebounds and three assists. Durant has equaled Carmelo Anthony, now they are the only ones with three gold medals in men’s basketball.
Durant also “stole” Carmelo Anthony’s historic points lead. Durant now has 435 points from 22 games in the Olympics, against 336 points from Anthony’s 31 games. LeBron James is the third highest scorer in the United States with 273 points.
Durant leaves Tokyo as a three-time Olympic champion. He had already won gold with the American team in 2012 and 2016.
On the French side, Rudy Gobert stands out in the match, with 16 points and eight rebounds. This was the fourth silver medal won by France, which was also Olympic runner-up in 1948, 2000 and 2012. Interestingly, in every decision in the Olympics, France was defeated by the United States.
The game
France started better, while the United States dented the hoop in the first long-range shots. Gradually, the Americans calibrated their aim and finished the first quarter with a four-point advantage.
In the second quarter, France had the good use of Rudy Gobert in the bottle. On the other hand, the Dream Team came to lead by more than 10 points, but dropped in performance at the end of the second quarter and went into the break winning by just five points.
Rudy Gobert was the one who gave the US the most work
Image: Thomas COEX / AFP
The French started the second half with confidence and narrowed the gap to just two points at the start of the third period. The problem was that the United States recovered and opened 11 points ahead in just a few minutes. In the final seconds, Nicolas Batum hit three for the French team, which went to the last quarter losing by eight points, still believing in the comeback.
In the last quarter, France put the difference in just one possession, but it didn’t last long. One mistake in the attack, and the United States was calmer in the lead. In the final stretch, the French even tried, forcing mistakes from the Americans, and came to lose by only three points, 10 seconds before the end of the match. But it stopped there. Game over and gold for the United States.
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