The U.S. men’s basketball team won its fifth consecutive gold medal. Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant led Team USA to a 98-87 victory over host France on Saturday to capture the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. It was a tense gold-medal game in front of a raucous pro-France crowd at the Bercy Arena in Paris, but the U.S. never trailed in the second half, capped by Curry’s captivating 3-pointer. Victor Wembanyama made life difficult for Team USA, scoring a team-high 26 points in their most important game to date.
France cut the U.S. lead to three in the final minutes, but then Currie responded. The best shooter in basketball history hit a staggering four three-pointers in two minutes to give Team USA the breathing room they needed in the final seconds. Curry scored 24 points on 8-of-12 three-pointers against France, and scored 36 points and hit nine three-pointers against Serbia.
This is the first Olympic gold medal for Curry, who had not competed in an Olympics until this summer.
“It’s a test. Obviously, France are at their home court and you know they’re not going to give up,” he told NBC after the game. “They threw everything at us. … We got a little uncomfortable at the end, turning the ball over, quick shots … the pace, the avalanche came. Thankfully, the other three were in there. It’s been an incredible long time that I’ve been blessed to play basketball at a high level, which ranks very high in terms of excitement and relief when you get to the finish line.
The U.S. team made 18 three-pointers in the gold medal game, shooting 50% from three-point range. That three-point shooting helped the U.S. overcome 17 turnovers. Durant scored 15 points against France to win his fourth gold medal (becoming the first men’s player to do so), while James added 14 points, 10 assists and six rebounds. .
Guerschon Yabusele scored 20 points for France for Wembanyama, Includes poster dunk against James in season two. The French team performed well throughout the game, but only shot 30% from three-point range.
Earlier on Saturday, Serbia beat Germany to claim the bronze medal. Here are all the men’s basketball medalists of the 21st century.
This story was originally published on cbs sports August 10, 2024.
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