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Stephen Curry scored 24 factors and led the best way to a 98-87 win over France.
Stephen Curry was enthusiastic about this two years in the past, after profitable his fourth NBA title. The one factor left for him to win was Olympic gold.
And within the final second, he made positive that medal can be his.
The U.S. is atop the worldwide males’s basketball world as soon as once more, after Curry scored 24 factors and led the best way to a 98-87 win over France within the last on the Paris Video games on Saturday evening. It was the fifth consecutive gold medal for the U.S. — and the seventeenth in 20 all-time appearances for the People on the video games.
Curry made 4 three-pointers within the last 2:43, together with the one which simply sealed the win with 1:19 remaining. It put the U.S. up 93-84, and he skipped down the court docket letting out a yell, shaking his jersey so everybody might see the “USA” throughout the entrance.
If that wasn’t sufficient, another adopted with about 30 seconds left — with the “fall asleep” transfer the place he places his palms on the facet of his face.
Good evening. Recreation over. Gold received. Once more.
“For me to get a gold medal is insane, and I thank God for the chance to expertise it,” Curry mentioned.
Kevin Durant — the primary four-time males’s gold medalist in Olympic basketball historical past — scored 15 for the People, as did Devin Booker. And LeBron James, carrying metallic gold footwear that wanted no clarification, scored 14 for the U.S. as he received his fourth Olympic medal and third gold.
For the second consecutive Olympics, the French needed to watch the People maintain out U.S. flags in celebration after the title recreation. The French misplaced to the U.S. 87-82 in Tokyo three years in the past, and this one was right down to the ultimate minutes.
That’s, till Curry took over.
“I feel we could be the one workforce on the planet whose followers are ashamed of them in the event that they get a silver medal,” mentioned U.S. coach Steve Kerr, whose run as coach ends now with a 21-3 report and Olympic gold — 11-0 this summer season. “That’s the strain that we face. However our gamers, and also you noticed Steph, they love the strain. They recognize this environment they usually had been incredible.”
Victor Wembanyama, in his first Olympic last, was sensible for France, scoring 26 factors and protecting his face in a towel afterward because the People celebrated. Guerschon Yabusele scored 20 for the hosts.
“For positive, it’s a disappointment as a result of we anticipated we might do it,” France coach Vincent Collet mentioned. “However we have now to acknowledge on the finish that they’re higher. We’re very shut. … After they make incredible photographs, that’s the distinction.”
The U.S. lead was 14 early within the third, trying poised to tug away. However the offense rapidly went chilly and when Evan Fournier related on a 3-pointer with 3:05 left within the quarter the lead was right down to 65-59 — a 12-4 run by the hosts.
And with an opportunity to go up double-digits headed to the fourth, a giant U.S. blunder gave France one other jolt of momentum. Anthony Edwards and Durant bought their alerts crossed on a go that led to a turnover, Nando De Colo scored to beat the buzzer and the U.S. lead was solely 72-66 going into the ultimate 10 minutes.
It bought as shut as three. No nearer, because of Curry. It was 4 3-pointers in a span of two:12, they usually instantly went into Olympic lore.
“An enormous shot to place us up six. That type of settled every little thing,” Curry mentioned. “After which the rhythm, the avalanche got here, and fortunately the opposite three went in. That was an unbelievable second. I’ve been blessed to play basketball at a excessive degree for a really very long time. This ranks very excessive by way of pleasure and the sense of reduction, attending to the end line.”
It was the eighth time in Olympic historical past — and Sunday’s ladies’s last between the U.S. and France will mark the ninth — that the house workforce bought to play for basketball gold.
Residence groups are actually 5-3 in these video games, 2-1 on the boys’s facet. The U.S. women and men each received in 1984 and 1996; the ladies of the Soviet Union received in 1980, whereas Australia’s ladies misplaced to the U.S. in 2000 and Japan’s ladies additionally misplaced to the U.S. on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past.
For James, it was another factor for the neverending record that’s his legacy. For Durant, it was historical past with 4 golds. For Booker, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum and Bam Adebayo, it was a second gold. For Jrue Vacation, it was a second gold to match his spouse — soccer nice Lauren Cheney Vacation — for the household lead. For Derrick White, Tyrese Haliburton, Joel Embiid and Anthony Edwards, it was the primary Olympic title.
And for Curry, it was every little thing.
“It’s particular,” Curry mentioned. “Two years in the past, once we received our final championship, I knew this was going to be on the horizon. Any mission that you just tackle, you give it every little thing you’ve.”
He likened it to a Recreation 7 on the street, which it mainly was. He’s had huge success in these moments: a 50-point outburst to guide Golden State previous Sacramento in 2023, a 27-point, nine-rebound, 10-assist recreation to win a do-or-die in Houston in 2018.
And now, this.
“It’s proper up there with the entire best video games of his profession,” Kerr mentioned. “The shot-making was simply unbelievable. However underneath the circumstances, on the street, in Paris, in opposition to France for a gold medal, that is storybook stuff. However that’s what Steph does. He likes to be in storybooks.”
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