It’s all over. Team USA thrives in their mission of bagging the third consecutive Olympic gold in recent Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Indeed, US Men’s basketball saved the best for last as they blow out Serbia with 96-66 victory in the Olympic finals.
At the start of the preliminary round, Serbia has given Team USA a scare gaining the 23-5 deficit to push to the limit of becoming tournament favorites with only 3 defeats. During the eliminations, the team managed to spark with 2-game winning streak that took them all the way to the medal round. Unfortunately, they slipped and lost their fortune during the last hardcourt action.
Kevin Durant leads Team USA and declared as the best player with an Olympic career high of 30 points. It appears a replay of his total score in the finals of London Olympics 4 years ago. Team USA started a bit slow in the opening quarter but managed to overcome Serbia’s suffocating defense.
Basing from the records, Durant won his second Olympic Medal together with the Veteran Carmela Anthony. On the other hand, coaches Gregg Popovich and Mike Krzyzewski picked up their third and will be the latter’s farewell game for Team USA.
The opening quarter was truly exchanges of baskets for both teams but U.S. led at the end 19-15 courtesy of Durant’s 3-pointer. Although, the ball rotation was one of the common things missing in the team, Durant’s shooting and aggressiveness contributes a lot.
US led in the shooting percentage and nailed Serbia to 38% while forcing them to commit 18 turnovers. On the other hand, the contributions from the supporting casts from Sacramento King DeMarcus Cousins (13 points, 15 rebounds), New York Knicks Carmelo Anthony (7points) and Golden State Warriors Klay Thompson (12 points) were also remarkable.
As the game ends, Anthony was interviewed and gladly uttered his statement. “I know there was a lot of buzz about us not playing games in a couple of games but the way we locked in, the way we focused in to be able to have these gold medals around our necks was special” he said.
Teammates Stephen Curry, Lebron James, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin decided not to play for variety of Reasons. However according to Jerry Colangelo Managing Director of USA Basketball, none of them once they got the gold again.
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