The US basketball players won Olympic gold for the fourth time in a row at the Summer Games in Tokyo. Led by Kevin Durant, the US team defeated France in the final in the Saitama Super Arena on Saturday with 87:82 (44:39) and thus returned the favor for the opening defeat against the French in the Olympic tournament. In the game for third place, Australia prevailed against Slovenia with 107: 93 (53:45), the Australian Patty Mills shone with 42 points.
07.08.2021 one 15:36
The French team kept the final open for a long time, took the lead 10: 4, but subsequently fell behind for the rest of the season. In the fourth quarter the Europeans fought their way up to three points to 70:73 and ten seconds before the end to 82:85, but the favorite from North America ultimately successfully kept the opponent at a distance. Durant concluded with two converted free throws.
The 32-year-old Durant, who will extend the Brooklyn Nets by four years for a whopping 198 million US dollars (167 million euros), was the dominant player for the Americans with 29 points and celebrated his third Olympic victory after 2012 and 2016. The best throwers among the French were Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert with 16 points each.
“We went through some adversity,” said Durant after the final. “We lost one game in the tournament, we lost two test matches. We had some unusual circumstances with Corona. We fought our way through everything. I’m glad we did it. This is the perfect end to this summer.” The NBA star also received recognition for his next gala performance from the opponent. “He’s the best scorer in basketball, he just did his thing again,” said France center Rudy Gobert appreciatively.
Durant’s team-mate Damian Lillard praised: “It’s hard not to look at him all the time. He’s a very special player. He has carried a lot of our burden here.” The pressure on the Americans was enormous. As always, everyone expected gold. “I feel more joy than relief,” said Lillard: “You can’t expect us to be thrown together like that and we immediately win against everyone. Other teams here have been playing together for a long time.”
France was recently a bit of a feared opponent of the US basketball stars. At the last World Cup in 2019, the Europeans threw the US team out of the competition in the quarter-finals, and coach Gregg Popovich’s team also suffered a 76-83 defeat against the French at the start of the Olympic Games. It was the first US basketball defeat at the Olympics in 17 years. In the Tokyo final, however, the Americans did better and celebrated their 16th Olympic victory in men’s basketball, while France missed the first gold in the sport and instead took silver for the third time.
“We’re glad it’s over,” said 72-year-old Popovich, coach of Austria’s NBA legionnaire Jakob Pöltl at the San Antonio Spurs: “The team has improved quickly under difficult circumstances and has earned this gold.”
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