As the 2024 Olympics come to an end, USA Basketball took on France in Paris on Saturday afternoon with a gold medal on the line in the men’s game.
USA put together a star-studded roster hoping to avoid a letdown and earn a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal. While it wasn’t always pretty, they were able to accomplish their goal with a 98-87 win over France.
It of course was LeBron James who kicked off the scoring with a driving dunk, and then he found Devin Booker for a 3-pointer. French phenom Victor Wembanyama got his team started though with a triple of his own and then a layup.
James was doing everything for his team early on, coming up with a block and then finding Booker again with a ridiculous pass for a layup. France hung in there though and was only trailing 20-15 at the end of the first quarter.
Anthony Davis got things started in the second quarter with a block on a 3-point attempt and then a tough layup on Wembanyama. He then had a putback dunk, although Wembanyama did the same on the other end for his team. That led to a little France run as they took a 25-24 lead.
The Americans had a nice response though as James went into attack mode, still showing that he is the best force in the world in transition. USA built up its first double-digit lead although Guerschon Yabusele beat the buzzer with a layup over Davis to cut France’s deficit to 49-41 going into the halftime locker room.
Curry got hot to begin the third quarter with James finding him for a pair of triples, extending the USA lead to 14.
France finally started to make some outside shots though and went on a run to cut it to six before James responded with a big triple. It was still a solid close to the third quarter for France though as USA went into the fourth leading 72-66.
With the Americans suddenly struggling to score, Davis gave his team a huge boost on the offensive glass with a few putbacks.
The triples then started going again for USA with Kevin Durant and Jrue Holiday both connected to get it back to double digits.
It was never going to be easy though as France kept fighting. After some costly turnovers by USA, France was within three at 82-79 with three minutes to play.
Curry then hit three massive 3-pointers though, making up for some of the turnovers and putting his team up 93-84 with a minute to play. Curry then hit another to seal it, bring home gold for USA.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS GOLDEN AGAIN! 🇺🇸🥇 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/IfqvZHtvlC
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
Curry led Team USA with 24 points in the game to go along with five assists. James had 14 points, six rebounds, 10 assists, one steal and one block while Davis finished with eight points, 10 rebounds, one assist, three steals and four blocks.
LeBron James likely to be named MVP for USA Basketball
They are going to give out an MVP of the tournament and the expectation is it will be LeBron James, who lead USA Basketball in almost every statistical category during this run.
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