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LONDON—For much of Sunday’s gold-medal game here at North Greenwich Arena, Team USA was slightly off. Offensively, led by Kevin Durant’s 30 points, their numbers were good, but they weren’t able to reliably create the kind of easy points that have been their hallmark in the Olympics. Combine that with the efficient offense of Spain, and heading into the final moments of the game, the outcome was very much in doubt.
But then the world’s best team turned to the world’s best player. LeBron James, with 2:45 to go in the game and the U.S. clinging to a 97-91 lead, blew past Rudy Fernandez and drove to the rim, finishing with a resounding dunk. Less than a minute later, he pulled up with Spain center Marc Gasol in his face, knocking down a 3-pointer that gave Team USA a nine-point lead that it would carry to a 107-100 win. James wound up with 19 points and seven rebounds.
The U.S. has beaten Spain in consecutive gold-medal games.
It was not an easy go, however.
Offensively, Spain got off to a scintillating start, as guard Juan Carlos Navarro scored 14 points in the first quarter and the team shot 47.1 percent from the floor. But the U.S. offense was unstoppable, going 7-for-10 from the 3-point line and shooting 57.1 percent overall to establish a 35-27 lead at the end of the first period.
But Spain would not go away in the second period, and things got testy between the two teams. After Sergio Rodriguez capped a 12-2 run, giving Spain a 39-37 lead, with a 3-pointer, Rodriguez delivered a shot to Tyson Chandler at the other end as Chandler was setting a screen. Chandler immediately began yelling at Rodriguez, who put his finger in Chandler’s face. Both players were called for technical fouls.
The testiness got to both sides, as the referees dominated action late in the second quarter. Marc Gasol was hit with his fourth foul (five is a disqualification in international basketball) of the game in the middle of the second period, and Rodriguez picked up his third in the second period, too. By halftime, four U.S. players had two fouls, and Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams had three. The Americans had taken 18 free throws. Spain took 21. When the U.S.’s Andre Iguodala was whistled for an unsportsmanlike foul with 3.1 seconds to go in the half, free throws by Rudy Fernandez allowed Spain to pull within a 59-58 score as the teams went into the locker room.
In the third quarter, Spain’s strategy was clear—hammer the Americans’ weak interior defense with Pau Gasol. Time and again, Spain found a way to get Gasol touches in paint, and he delivered, scoring Spain’s first 13 points in the quarter. Gasol finished with 24 points on the night. While the D did not hold for Team USA in the third, the offense was able to keep pace, getting 10 third-quarter points from Durant and seven from James, allowing the Americans to hold on to an 83-82 edge going into the decisive fourth period.
Earlier on Sunday, Russia beat Argentina to win bronze.
Source: The Sporting News
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