Steph Curry lifts USA basketball past France to fifth straight Olympic gold: How America’s Avengers delivered

PARIS — America’s recurring dream continues.

As James Brown’s “Living in America” played over the Bercy Arena loudspeakers, several of the greatest NBA players ever from the U.S. draped themselves in their country’s flag and celebrated a 98-87 win over France on Saturday.

That’s five consecutive gold medals for the U.S. men in basketball, and as importantly, the Americans will be the defending champs when the Olympics shift to Los Angeles in four years.

Among the most star-studded rosters the United States has ever sent to the Olympics, with 11 NBA All-Stars that drew constant comparisons to the “Dream Team” of 1992, Team USA made good on its promise Saturday by winning arguably the toughest road game in U.S. history — against a two-time silver medalist in its nation’s capital, with a 9:30 p.m. local start.

There’s nothing like a Saturday night in Paris, especially if the chain around your neck is a gold medal.

IT WAS ALWAYS GOLD.

The 🇺🇸 #USABMNT wins a 5th consecutive Olympic gold medal! pic.twitter.com/nYx0SBh0Ui

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) August 10, 2024

Kevin Durant, already the U.S. all-time leading scorer, is now the only men’s player ever to win four Olympic golds in basketball. He made his only start of the 2024 Olympics and finished with 15 points.

Steph Curry, in his first and maybe only Olympics and a hero from the Americans’ narrow win over Serbia to even reach the gold-medal game, led the U.S. with 24 points. He drained four crucial 3-pointers inside of 3 minutes to go, including the likely game-clincher with 33 seconds left for a nine-point advantage, and finished the game with eight 3s. He connected on 17 3s in the last two games.

“At that point your mind goes blank,” Curry said of his late barrage of 3s. “You don’t really care about the setting or the scenario or anything, it’s just a shot.

“Thankfully, that one (with 2:47 left and the Americans up by just three) went in, it settled us down, and after that it’s just rhythm and flow and confidence and that was it.”

LeBron James, a three-time gold winner who wore a pair of shiny gold Nike high tops for the championship game, scored 14 points with 10 assists and six rebounds. Devin Booker, a two-time gold medalist now, scored 13 of his 15 points for the U.S. in the first half. He added six rebounds. Anthony Davis, also a two-time Olympic gold winner, added eight points and nine rebounds.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words — two times,” Booker said. “This experience was totally different from the first one. Not taking anything away from that, but the atmosphere, obviously Steph and LeBron joining us, this experience is going up there with any other experience in my lifetime.”

Reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, who grew up near Paris, was awesome with 26 points and seven rebounds. Former Boston Celtic Guerschon Yabusele added 20 points.

France is still looking for its first gold medal in basketball, but has Wemby, Bilal Coulibaly and the four Frenchmen drafted into the NBA in the first round last June at its disposal for the foreseeable future.

USA coach Steve Kerr had already said he would step down from the post at the conclusion of the Olympics. He does so as a champion. The Americans didn’t lose this summer, covering six Olympic contests and five exhibition games. They beat their opponents at the Olympics by a combined 114 points, though the 17-point deficit they faced against Serbia and the three-point lead they held with just 3:04 remaining against France are true indicators of just how tough the final two games were.

Three times, including in the Olympic semifinals against Serbia when a loss would have ruined everything, the U.S. was challenged in games until the final moments. Such a thing never happened to the Dream Team, but that was decades ago.

Basketball grew around the world because of what Michael Jordan’s last Olympic team did, and it took a superstar cast with some of the greatest to ever play to outlast a star-studded tournament at the Paris Games.

Keep that in mind as you consider where to rank this iteration of Team USA among the great teams that came before it, and also begin to ponder what the next American roster will look like in four years when the Olympics come to Los Angeles.

Kerr made myriad changes to his lineup and rotation. Durant started instead of Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum re-emerged off the bench, playing instead of Derrick White. Kerr also chose to use one of his three big men at a time, starting Joel Embiid but playing him just five minutes in the first half.

The Embiid-France sidestory fizzled as the drama heightened on the court involving the rest of the players. Embiid, while he did receive his usual boos from the French crowd before the game, finished with four points in 11 minutes.

The Americans led 20-15 at the end of one quarter and 49-41 at halftime. Yabusele scored 15 in the first half, including a muscular dunk on James (in which James was also called for a foul) and a layup over Davis to end the half. Wembanyama had 13 points in the first half, and his presence on defense forced the U.S. to move the ball until it was out of reach from his 8-foot wingspan.

The U.S. led by as many as 10 in the opening half and pushed it to 14 in the third quarter, but it was just 72-66 heading into the fourth, thanks to a goaltend called on Durant against Nando De Colo’s scoop shot at the buzzer.

The Americans shot 18-of-36 from 3 and produced 10 steals — hanging their hats on their two key principles of defense and shooting. The French were able to keep the U.S. from playing at a faster pace, which is how they beat Canada and Germany in upsets to get to this point.

Kerr had intended to take advantage of his superior guard play, and in the end, it was Curry who made the difference.

This story will be updated.

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(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)