Another year, another well-earned golden ending for men’s basketball. The U.S. team, for the second straight Olympics, fought off a tough Spanish squad in the gold medal final for a 107–100 win.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We didn’t want it easy,” said LeBron James, according to NBCOlympics.com. “A lot of teams have won gold easy. We didn’t want it that way. We’re a competitive team and we love when it gets tight. That’s when our will and determination kind of shows. It was the same way in ‘08.”
In that 2008 game the U.S. fought their way to a 118–107 win over Spain that was close up to the final minute. This year’s contest against a Spain squad which boasted nine players with NBA experience, was much the same.
Spain’s guard Juan-Carlos Navarro started the Spaniards off right with a four-point play and had already racked up 19 points by halftime. The U.S. held just a 59–58 lead at the break, after leading by as many as 10.
Lost in the closeness of the game though was the price Spain paid to get there, as starting center Marc Gasol racked four fouls mid-way through the second quarter. He would not return until the final period.
Fouls were a theme of the game on both sides, and led to a contest that lacked much flow. In all, 33 fouls were called in the first half alone.
With one Gasol out to start the second half Spain fed the other Gasol, Pau, on a number of opportunities to begin the third quarter. The Lakers’ star, widely considered to be the best low-post player in the Olympics, scored the team’s first 13 points of the period against the under-sized U.S. squad.
Without the services of the injured Dwight Howard, the United States has played the Olympics with Tyson Chandler at center with no real backup, though do-everything MVP LeBron James can also play the position, if needed.
James had been needed a fair amount and the result is usually a forward-dominated lineup that was fast and agile but could be pounded on by a team with bigger players.
Spain, with two Gasol brothers that are both around seven feet tall as well as the six-foot, 10-inch Serge Ibaka, who led the NBA in blocks this past season, fit the bill as the one team that can give Team USA fits.
While they had a slight advantage inside, the Spaniards were not able to match up on the perimeter with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony.
After a first half where Spain hit seven threes, they went cold from beyond the arc after halftime, hitting zero treys. And after Pau Gasol’s hot start to the third quarter, Spain’s offense slowed down while the U.S. team slowly rebuilt its lead.
Finally, with Chris Paul’s driving layup that put Team USA up 104–93 with 50 seconds left, even coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was jumping on the sideline in a rare show of emotion, knew it was over, again.
“To do it twice is a special moment,” Carmelo Anthony said. “As the U.S. men’s team, we go through a lot.”
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