Kevin Durant leads Team USA to a four-peat Olympic basketball gold

The US basketball team buried the 83-76 upset against France in the preliminary stage and defeated Evan Fournier and company in the Tokyo Olympics final to clinch a four-peat gold. It was skipper Kevin Durant that led Team USA by scoring 29 points as they sealed the game 87-82. With the gold, he has now joined Carmelo Anthony as the only three-time men’s gold medalist in Olympic history. 

Jayson Tatum finished with 19 points as Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday scored 11 each for the US. For France, Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert each scored 16 points. The game, a thriller, saw the French close the gap to three points –  73-70 – with 5:42 minutes left on the clock. However, from there Team USA picked up and restored a 10-point lead. 

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With 8.8 seconds left in the game, Durant sealed the gold with two free throw shots. The lead got stretched to five and the possession was irrelevant. As the final whistle blew, Durant, Bam Adebayo and Draymond Green wrapped themselves in American flags to sign off a memorable campaign. The US now has 16 golds in 19 Olympic tries. 

In the semi-final US had beaten Australia 97-78. Durant had scored 23 points in the game. He had scored 29 points one game earlier in the quarterfinal win over Spain. 

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“He’s been in the situation before, and he’s leading us as such. So, I think these games are real meaningful to him and our whole team. So, he has been a great leader for us. We feed off what he does, and we feed off his energy. So, like you said, he didn’t have to be here. He’s done what he’s done in the Olympic Games in the past, but for him to solidify himself and come here and be a leader, we feed off that energy,” Devin Booker spoke about Durant after the semifinal win.