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Team USA won the gold medal in basketball after defeating France in the title game of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in Saitama, Japan. Saturday’s win was a nail-biter as the USA squad had to sweat it out to come away with the victory.
Kevin Durant was the top scorer for Team USA once again with 29 points to power the Americans to another gold medal. Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier scored 16 points apiece to lead France.
The game wasn’t decided until the final seconds as Team USA held on to a precarious three-point lead with only 10.0 seconds remaining after two free throws by France’s Nando De Colo. It was preceded by two missed free throws by Damian Lillard with 23 seconds left in the game that would have put the US ahead by nine.
A dunk by Frank Ntilikina and De Colo’s foul shots gave France new life. But Durant came to the rescue for Team USA again with two free throws to finish the scoring.
Here are five takeaways from Team USA’s victory over Team France:
#1 Kevin Durant stars for Team USA
Durant has been Team USA’s best player throughout the Olympics and he showed in the gold medal game that he just might be the best in the world. In the first half, the former NBA MVP scored 21 points as his teammates mostly deferred to him to take most of the shots.
He was the first player on Team USA to make a 3-pointer against France on Saturday with his teammates starting off cold from beyond the arc.
What’s baffling, though, was the lack of touches that Durant had in the fourth quarter when he was far and away their best option on offense. But it was only fitting that he scored the winning free throws for Team USA that sealed the win. Durant also added six rebounds and three assists.
#2 Team USA forced France into several turnovers
With their three-point shooting failing them, Team USA needed to amp up the defensive pressure and it worked. The US forced France to cough up the ball 18 times which translated into 20 points off turnovers. Durant and company scored 13 fast break points to just seven for the French to give them a bit of an advantage.
The defense on the perimeter made up for Team USA losing out on the boards, 41-34, which consequently resulted in 14 second chance points for France compared to just seven for the Americans.
#3 Clutch shots from Team USA
Team USA scored when they needed to. As the game wound down to the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, both rims seemed to have a lid on them. But Damian Lillard made two jumpers while Jrue Holiday scored on a dunk, then Jayson Tatum made a 3-pointer with 3:24 remaining to put the US ahead by 10 points.
The trio’s scoring binge helped Team USA to pull away a bit from Team France which cut the Americans’ lead down to three on a three-pointer by Ntilikina with 5:42 left in the game.
#4 Jrue Holiday’s superb defense
Holiday’s reputation as a defensive stopper is well-known and he made sure that France knew it as well. The Milwaukee Bucks guard stifled the French into giving up the ball multiple times with him on the floor. He stole the ball on three occasions and even blocked a field goal attempt in the third quarter, keeping the French from feeling comfortable executing their plays with Holiday on the floor.
Similar to his defense in the NBA Finals on Chris Paul, Holiday put the clamps on France’s Frank Ntilikina and Nando de Colo.
During a key possession by France with Team USA up by just five points midway through the fourth quarter, Holiday stole the ball from Ntilikina at the top of the key and sailed home for an uncontested breakaway dunk with 5:10 left to play.
#5 Team USA shot more field goals
Credit Team USA for their defense as the primary reason why they won this ball game. With the way they were shooting the ball from 3-point territory (9-of-32) and at the line (14-of-21), there was almost no way for the US to win this.
However, the Americans stole the ball nine times and blocked five shots (aside from the 18 forced turnovers), to give them extra possessions which then translated into more attempts from the floor.
Overall, Team USA shot the ball 70 times compared to France which took only 58 shots from the field. The huge discrepancy in field goal attempts was one of the major reasons why the US won as they made 32 of their attempts compared to just 27 makes for France.
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