Written by Sam Amick at USAToday.com
They weren’t the Dream Team, or even the Redeem Team.
But by the time Team USA’s 96-66 win against Serbia was complete on Sunday and the mission for the third consecutive gold medal was complete, only one thing mattered more than all the comparisons that always inevitably come: this 2016 edition kept the Americans’ sterling reputation intact.
Twelve years after their bronze finish in the Athens Games sparked so much change in the national program, and a decade after a bronze finish in the FIBA World Championship in Japan had Mike Krzyzewski’s tenure as Team USA coach off to an inauspicious start, their run of perfection continues. With the win, Team USA — this 2016 version that was led by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Paul George and all the rest — has won 52 consecutive games in FIBA play (24 in the Olympics).
In a rematch of their Aug. 12 pool play game in which they won by just three points, the USA wasted little time pulling away in this one. After leading by one late in the first quarter, they finished the first half on a 36-14 run and led 52-29 at halftime.
After struggling so mightily defensively during the later stages of group play, the Americans — who also downed Serbia in the gold medal game during the FIBA World Cup finale in Spain two summers ago — were in lockdown mode at the perfect time. They held Serbia to 38% shooting, while forcing 18 turnovers. Durant, who led the team in scoring during the Olympics, finished with 30 points. The Sacramento Kings’DeMarcus Cousins had 13 points and 15 rebounds, and the Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson added 12 points.
Krzyzewski, the Duke legend who was hired by program head Jerry Colangelo in 2005, is now officially retired from the national team and will make way for the San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich in 2020. He finishes with a 59-1 mark overall, his lone loss coming against Greece in those 2006 Worlds that led to the bronze finish. Carmelo Anthony, the New York Knicks star who already took over the all-time Team USA lead in scoring, becomes the first American player to win a third gold.
“I know there was a lot of buzz about us not playing well (for) a couple games…in the early rounds, but the way that we locked in, and the way we focused in, to be able to have these gold medals around our necks was special,” said Anthony, who had seven points and seven rebounds in the finale. “Behind closed doors, we really locked in. It was just a matter of us putting that focus level.”
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