The United States men’s basketball team have clinched their fourth consecutive Olympic gold after defeating rivals France 87-82 in the final at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
Even though the US team struggled during the exhibition matches and even suffered a loss in the group stages, they bounced back strong and after a thrashing of Australia in the semis, their old rivals France was up against them for the gold.
Although their previous encounter against France resulted in an 83-76 loss, the rematch saw a brilliant performance from both Damian Lillard as well as Jrue Holiday. Lillard clocked a couple of two point scoring, added with a steal and a dunk from Holiday.
Kevin Durant, who won his third Olympics gold on Saturday, topped the scoreboard with clocking 29 points.
“We went through some real adversity. We just fought though everything,” said Durant, “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.”
(more to follow)
