US men’s basketball topples France for fourth consecutive Olympic gold

Kevin Durant (7) reacts in the second half of the gold-medal game against France at the Tokyo Olympics.The United States men’s basketball team has done it again.

Despite all the obstacles of building a roster following a COVID-19 impacted NBA season, despite early struggles in exhibition games, despite even a rare loss in the group stage, the end result was the same as it’s been for the previous three Olympics: Gold.

Team USA finally did Saturday what it could not do when it played France nearly two weeks ago, closing out a 87-82 victory with some well-timed jumpers after France had cut the deficit to just three points with 5:40 left.

“We went through some real adversity. We just fought though everything,” Kevin Durant said. “It meant a lot. France is a good team, they don’t quit. They’re a big team. They presented a big challenge. But we wanted them again. We wanted to play them again.”

Unlike their first meeting, when France left the Americans shell-shocked after an 83-76 victory, the U.S. responded immediately as Damian Lillard made a pair of long 2-point jumpers and Jrue Holiday got a steal and a dunk to keep their team out of danger.

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