Curry put on a stunning closing kick with four straight threes that people will talk about for years
The US won a taut game against France 98-87 to win its fifth straight gold medal in basketball and Stephen Curry is hugely responsible for the win.
Curry rained four threes in the last 2:48 and did it when France was pushing hard too.
Give full credit to the French - they were great. It took a superb performance from Curry and his teammates to pull the win out.
France was arguably too reliant on Victor Wembanyama and Guerschon Yabusele. Yabusele racked up 20, including a lifetime posterization of LeBron James, while Wembanyama got 25.
He’s just 20 and made some mistakes late, including a three he probably should have passed on because the US was up six and instead of cutting the lead, Kevin Durant padded it at the line, making it 87-79. France probably could have gotten a better shot but he’s young. He’ll learn from this.
The US was arguably too careless with the ball, but credit France for great defense as they forced Team to USA cough it up 17 times. Some of those were due to the French defense but some were just foolish or from a lack of attention.
But in the end, Curry got hot for the second straight game. He hit eight threes, including the late four that made a win for France impossible. Among other things, he probably cemented his reputation as the greatest shooter of all time. Realistically he probably already established that but doing that on this stage was huge.
It was a tremendous and historic performance.
The US had a much more balanced offensive performance than did the French. Curry had 24 while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker finished with 15 each. LeBron James had 14 points, six rebounds and 10 assists (and five of the 17 turnovers).
Anthony Davis had eight points and 10 boards off the bench, along with four blocks. Anthony Edwards also had eight points and Jrue Holiday had six. Former Duke star Jayson Tatum got in this time and finished with two points and three rebounds.
In 2008, Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski were determined to rebuild the American program. The US has now won five straight gold medals under three different coaches - Krzyzewski in 2008, 2012 and 2016, Gregg Popovich in 2020 and now Steve Kerr in 2024.
It’s a tremendous accomplishment. We’ll have more on this later.
