Christian Petersen/Getty Images
The job is done, the mission is accomplished. There was so much talk about where this current USA squad ranked, if it could beat the Dream Team and how good they really were.
All that mattered was if they could be one point better than Spain on Sunday. And they were, with six other points to spare.
It wasn’t easy for the United States as Spain was completely game, hitting big 3s, withstanding foul trouble and weathering U.S. runs. But as the game got close and LeBron went to the bench with four fouls, guess who stepped up.
Kevin Durant was urged to shoot by his teammates and coaches all tournament long. I guess he was saving it for the gold medal game. He took 18 attempts en route to a game-high 30, including a couple big time shots late in the fourth quarter to help seal the game. (I’d love to describe how one of them looked in the fourth quarter, but unfortunately NBC was busy with a commercial break mid-game.)
The game was tough and scrappy as Spain never would completely lay down. Pau Gasol was huge, Juan Carlos Navarro hit big shots all over and Team USA couldn’t ever put together a big knockout punch. They flopped, pushed and pulled. (It’s a good thing Rudy Fernandez is staying overseas in Euroleague. I might have had to walk onto the court and punch him in the face next season.) This U.S. team is terrific and they played a pretty good game, but Spain held tough.
In the end, too much KD, too much LeBron, too much Chris Paul. Too much everything. Team USA just had too much.
Three Thunder players bring home gold, giving Oklahoma City more golds than 59 other countries in the Olympics and as many as Spain and Brazil. (And with a silver on top of it.) This is cool too: KD scored more points in the Olympics than any other American player with 156, passing Spencer Haywood’s 1968 mark of 145.
As the game tightened in the second half, Coach K shortened his bench as Russell Westbrook didn’t play any, other than the last 30 seconds. James Harden entered with him and while the game was pretty much over, Harden had to knock down a couple of free throws to officially close the door. Westbrook finished with three points, Harden with two.
Serge Ibaka, who had seen his playing time significantly cut into, played a big role for Spain today as Marc Gasol inexplicably picked up four first half fouls. Ibaka finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, hitting 8-of-10 from the free throw line.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/08/photo-gallery-good-to-be-golden/
Had to watch this game on the Spanish Olympic channel. Then realized once I got on ESPN.com the game had been over 2 hours earlier.
http://distilleryimage6.instagram.com/70e445b8e4a811e19ed51231381000d3_7.jpg Melo got the Moet
@DennisBerry
Russ still rocking the lensless frames . . . :)
Beach volleyball, was still the most exciting event of the Olympics for me....
@ElMexiThunder as a sport, beach volleyball is not that good IMO. too many easy points and unforced errors. most of the players are not hot enough to make me watch the repetitive sequences.
@Crow @ElMexiThunder I like normal volleyball better, to watch as a sport.
What time is the replay? I woke up, and ended up falling asleep!!
@ElMexiThunder via TC (to duhsweetness)
I just hope you don't regret your decision . . . for the rest of your life . . . or anything. :)
@cleandoe Lol the U.S. were heavy favorites coming into this game, its not like we were the true underdogs going into this game expected to lose by a 3-1 favor. I'm actually disappointed this was a close game.
@ElMexiThunder if you have the basketball channel they are showing the gold medal game right now
@tydude No i don't, Guess i have to wait till 4.
@ElMexiThunder i believe 4..i slept in too but DVRd it lol
@OBoymuzik Yeah i feel like a bad Thunder fan now.
Do people think Argentina or Spain would make the NBA conference finals if they played as a team in the NBA? I didn't watch enough to guess on that.
@Crow they will get hammerd in the NBA
@Crow maybe spain with Rubio or a younger argentina team...i don't think either could as they are now
@OBoymuzik that would be my lightly directly informed guess as well
@OBoymuzik RAPM suggests Rubio is a very good impact defender but his one on one defense is not impressive except for steals.
@Crow yeah thats alot of what i was considering, he's much better at covering nba guys than calderon or navarro...i think Indiana or Boston could beat either team without any players in the olympics. maybe even the 2011 nuggets team
@OBoymuzik by the way Rubio was the worst decent minute shooter in the NBA last season and got worse every month
https://twitter.com/MySportsLegion/status/234700279700914177/photo/1
Not sure if this was posted. But this is awesome.
@supreme35 i wonder how high they'll jump when they win an nba championship.
Does anyone have video of that (inbound?) pass by Pau that KD swatted away? The look on Gasol's face was priceless.
@ThunderChick2010 It was a last second 3 pt attempt
glad russ didn't yawn during the national anthem this time
I would like for the finals to be in a neutral site. With international refs. I bet Stern wouldn't like that at all sense he wants to own the internaional scene too
@thelaughingwiseman if we had these refs the final score will be like 150-20 Heat
Now let's get ready for training camp, gotta long road ahead of us.
@f5alcon What has Brooks & company come up with after having 3.5+ months of time to study?
@f5alcon any way to get Russ to take better shots?
any way to improve a terrible on average playoff defense?
@mb22 @OBoymuzik @f5alcon it can add up to 1-2 pts in a game, which can sometimes be the difference, but mainly it was the suckiness of the defense much of the time that did them in.
@mb22 @OBoymuzik @f5alcon on average a KD possession produced about .25 pts per possession than Westbrook's in the playoffs.
@mb22 @OBoymuzik @f5alcon averaging 112 on offensive efficiency in the playoffs was nice for the Thunder but that is not enough often enough to beat 115+ by the Heat in those games.
@mb22 @OBoymuzik @f5alcon Heat offense was better than 115 on offensive efficiency in 3 of 4 wins.
@mb22 @OBoymuzik @f5alcon with as bad as their defense was, even a proper shot distribution probably would not have been enough to win.
@mb22 @OBoymuzik @f5alcon no i can't make an argument using games 3 and 5 being even closer. but I can point to the huge difference in their eFG%s and TS%s,
@Crow @OBoymuzik @f5alcon Because they won games 3 and 5?
@OBoymuzik @f5alcon Durant had more shots than Westbrook in just 2 of 5 games against the Heat. Games 3 and 5. Durant has to be tops from the start and nearly always IMO.
@Crow @f5alcon i think its more likely we sign James and LAL looks better than us and people say we shouldn't have given james that much
@Crow @f5alcon it could change in the playoffs if KD still can't fight free from physical defenders..its not very obvious when it happens once in every 10 games in the regular season but in the playoffs in 7 game series where he struggles to get the ball its pretty obvious..I could also see it happening if Russ turnovers go down and KDs get even higher
@OBoymuzik @f5alcon or maybe next season is still the same and the following season the script changes.
@OBoymuzik @f5alcon The focus of media critique might shift from Russ to KD now that the Russ critique is old and LeBron is off the snide and has a title.
@Crow @f5alcon i think Russ playing a supportive role in the olympics could maybe help him not force so many shots..it would aslo help if Serge would become more reliable on offense of if we started James
@f5alcon actually run plays or better plays when they need to?
@f5alcon get more corner threes?
@f5alcon defend LeBron better?
@f5alcon fix Ibaka's less helpful tendencies?
@f5alcon any way to improve rebounding?
reduce Perk turnovers?
get something more out of Aldrich or Jackson?
spain thought they could touch the medal but we http://i.imgur.com/7Zkxu.gif