PARIS: The United States won its fifth straight Olympic men's basketball crown on Saturday, beating France 98-87 to take its Olympic gold medal tally to 17.
In a rematch of the Tokyo Olympics final three years ago, LeBron James and Team USA's NBA All-Stars once again proved too much for France, despite the efforts of NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Vimbayama.
France cut a 14-point deficit to 3 with 3 minutes, 04 seconds to go on Wambayama's comeback dunk, but Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry hit a 3-pointer — one of four with less than three minutes remaining — And the United States did. It works non-stop until the end.
Stephen Curry celebrates with the US flag. (Reuters)
Curry finished with eight 3-pointers — including a rainbow over a jumper by Wimbanyama — and led the U.S. with 24 points.
“You'd just be surprised,” James said of Curry. “Having him around you, you're just trying to get stops on the other side and find other ways, but you still find him and get him the ball.”
“I was just trying to calm us down,” Curry said of his late-game heroics.
“All we wanted to do was get a good shot,” Curry said. We haven't had a good ball for a while.
“(Ultimately) the momentum was in our favor. At that point, your mind goes blank. You don't really care about the setting or the scenario or anything. It's just an arrow.”
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker each had 15 points and James had 14 points with six rebounds, 10 assists, one steal and one block.
For Durant, it was the US men's fourth Olympic gold. James won his third championship and Curry, a four-time NBA champion, made his first Olympic appearance.
“There's a lot of relief,” Carey said. “It wasn't easy, but, damn, I'm excited, man. It's everything I wanted and more, so I'm excited.”
Wombanyama had his best offensive game of the Olympics, scoring 26 points. Guerschon Yabusele added 20.
France connected on just nine of 30 three-point attempts, and the U.S. was outscored in fast breaks 31-9.
Both teams were locked defensively in a tense first half that featured 10 lead changes.
Wombanyama soared for a dunk that gave France an 11-10 lead and sent the Bercy Arena crowd into a frenzy.
Victor Vimbanyama is active from France. (Reuters)
The Americans were ahead early when Booker's behind-the-back pass and James steal freed Jayson Tatum for a dunk.
After one quarter, France took a 25-24 lead on Bilal Koulibaly's dunk, but the U.S. continued to capitalize on France's turnovers.
James drove through traffic for a layup, drew a foul and leaned over the USA bench before making a free throw to put the USA up 37-31 and they led 49-41 at halftime.
The dreamy finale featured an array of brilliant people. French President Emmanuel Macron and sprint star Shakri Richardson were at home a day after anchoring the U.S. 4x100m relay to gold.
James quickly indicated his intention and entered the court with golden shoes and opened the gate with a dunk.
Curry, who scored 36 points in the semifinal win over Serbia, heated up in the second half and hit a three-pointer early in the third to give the U.S. its biggest lead of the game, 61-47.
France continued to press and trailed by only six in the fourth quarter, but eventually had to watch the USA players at the end with covered flags.
A dejected Wimbanyama could only hug his teammates, but with his silver medal around his neck, he called the experience “unbelievable” and said he would try to return the favor in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I'll be looking for gold in four years,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Serbia won the bronze medal with a 93-83 victory over World Cup champion Germany.
Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic had a triple-double of 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists to lead Serbia, which lost to the United States 95-91 in the semifinals.
