Tokyo 2020 Olympics men’s basketball final: USA 87-82 France – as it happened

Did I mention the final score? 87-82

On that note, I’ll sign off. Thanks for staying up to watch with me, congratulations to our French readers on an impressive silver medal performance, and to USA fans, exhale and enjoy.

Final numbers: Durant 29 points and six rebounds. Tatum 19 and 7. Holiday and Lillard 11 each despite a few missteps. And Draymond Green, my pick for someone who could step up, had a team-high five assists. So there.

Fournier and Gobert led France with 16 each. They played a marvelous game offensively, moving the ball well and attacking inside. The defense just wasn’t quite there.

Oh, and Jrue Holiday’s wife is former U.S. women’s soccer player Lauren (Cheney) Holiday, so now they both have gold medals.

Kevin Durant is one of the greatest U.S. Olympians ever. 29 points and intangible leadership. His third gold medal.

France doesn’t even foul. They know it’s over.

Inbound … to Durant. They foul him with 8.8 seconds. Will Captain America hit one?

USA 85-82 France, 10 seconds left, USA possession. If they can hit one free throw or elude the defense entirely, they win gold.

De Colo drops it to Ntilikina. Miss, scramble, France has it. De Colo hits two free throws. 85-82, 10 seconds, timeout USA

85-80 USA after Lillard misses two and France replies and someone please call a timeout so I can keep up.

85-78 USA, 31 seconds after Holiday hits the first free throws, misses the second but gets his own rebound. Now Lillard is fouled. 23 seconds

The USA runs some clock. Holiday misses a three. Fournier misses a three with 36 seconds left. Holiday draws a foul with 31 seconds left. Has anyone named the sport in which his wife has won gold?

Draymond Green shows alertness and awareness of international rules to swat the ball away from the rim. Devin Booker drives, gets fouled and hits two.

De Colo, fresh from gesticulating at the ref, gets a rebound, and drives coast to coast for two. Tatum gets an offensive foul. Stomach is turning.

Gobert clanks his two free throws. Lillard feeds Tatum for a 3-pointer and … it’s double digits again.

As much as we’re talking about how France refuses to go away, we also have to say the USA keeps counterpunching and keeping that lead.

Fournier scores off a scramble. Holiday turns it over.

Gobert draws a foul against Durant.

Tatum misses. The USA have two points through more than four minutes in this quarter. Frank Ntilikina hits a three to cut it to three. Uh oh.

But Lillard hits one for two. Holiday steals and dunks. Luwawu Cabarro misses, USA misses and gets the rebound, and Lillard scores again.

Timeout, USA. This has to be making them nervous. A bunch of experienced international players who’ve already got one fourth-quarter rally against them?

Holiday is misfiring, and it’s starting to hurt. Batum cuts the lead to six. Then his Milwaukee Bucks teammate, Middleton, has a turnover. Reminder — they arrived late to these Olympics because there were busy winning the NBA championship.

And single digits. Again. Adebayo misses, and Luwawu Cabarrot drives for two at the other end.

Now Lavine misses from three. Will recent history repeat?

But I jinxed Gobert who travels in the paint with Durant guarding him. Durant feeds Adebayo at the other end, and … double digits! Again.

To thank a French fan for checking in, enjoy …

The view from France before sunrise …

France just won’t go away. Tatum misses a three. Heurtel misses, but Batum gets the rebound, and Luwawu Cabarrot hits a three.

Holiday misses and then fouls Gobert at the other end. His wife, incidentally, has a couple of gold medals. Name the sport.

Batum hits a three at the buzzer.

My goodness, international basketball moves quickly without all the stoppages we see in the NBA and college basketball. We’re already down to 1:18 left in the third, and again, this has been a good quarter for the USA.

France has 16 turnovers.

Oh, that’s a bad error from Tatum. But we have a miss from France, and Green (that man again!) finds Lavine alone inside.

Steal, and then Lavine shoots a long corner shot (but not 3) that hits the rim, bounces up several feet and then falls.

Steal, ball goes up to Tatum, and NOW we have a dunk.

Timeout France, and it’s 71-57.

Gobert dunks (have we seen a USA dunk yet?). Yabusele hits another three. Durant misses, and Yabusele tries again.

But Durant blocks Yabusele’s next effort, then hits a perimeter shot of his own.

It’s double digits, it’s not double digits, it’s double digits, she loves me, she loves me not …

Durant goes up for the jam … and Gobert just knocks him down. Durant hits one of two free throws, and the lead is, at least briefly, double digits again.

De Colo gets Booker in the air and draws Booker’s third foul. Tatum races back in to replace him.

Lillard draws a foul, but the refs decide he wasn’t shooting. No NBA “continuation” here.

Back and forth we go, and Lillard forces a de Colo turnover. Then he hits a tough corner three at the other end. Much better here from the sparkplug guard.

So what’s next? It feels like a pivotal moment in this game. Will France keep matching the USA with its inside game, the occasional 3-pointer and some USA misses? Or is this where the USA pulls away?

Yabusele comes out of the timeout to hit a three, and Gobert steals it from Holiday, so signs point to the former.

Gobert hits one of two free throws. Good thing for the USA he isn’t hitting all of them.

Durant hits a beautiful fadeaway. Forget for the moment that he has 23 points. That’s just pretty.

Good defense forces France to launch a 3-pointer as the shot clock expires, and Holiday drives for two at the other end.

Fournier misses. Durant hits a 3-pointer. France calls timeout.

USA 56-45, and they couldn’t have asked for a better start to the quarter.

Lillard gets his first assist. Then he fouls Gobert. Then de Colo drives and hits a tricky shot.

But then Lillard, given about 20 minutes to look at the hoop, hits his first 3-pointer fo the game. It’s 49-44.

NUMBERS

Durant has 21 points. The second foul late in the half could be a problem.

Durant also has hit two of the USA’s 3-pointers (albeit on seven attempts). Someone else needs to hit those. Tatum has one, accounting for part of his 11-point performance. The rest of the team has 12 points. That’s not good.

But Draymond Green has three assists.

Damian Lillard has no assists. And one point. And a minus-6 plus/minus.

Neither is this — France has outrebounded the USA 23-14. Will we ever see Javale McGee?

For France — Gobert has 13 points and seven rebounds, Fournier has 11, and de Colo has six assists.

About Zion … Oliver Stein checks in again from Germany, where it’s not daytime, asking about Zion’s availability.

He was indeed a finalist for this team and didn’t make the cut.

To be fair, the problem here is post defense rather than explosive offense, so maybe he wouldn’t solve it

Bam Adebayo is carrying a lot of the defensive load and has three blocks against no fouls, but oddly enough, his plus/minus right now is minus-3. He was on the court when the USA had some shooting dry spells, though.

Attack inside, get free throws. That’s the French strategy on offense, and it’s working pretty well.

The defensive strategy of “nah, just let ‘em shoot from 12 to 24 feet” only worked for the first few minutes, and that’s why the USA lead.

Gobert lowers the shoulder into Durant, does it again, does it again, and then Durant lightly touches his arm. Foul on the USA. Gobert hits one of two.

Durant misses with two seconds left, and it’s time for a caffeine break.

Fournier’s free throws cut the lead to five. He has 11.

Yabusele starts shoving people under the basket, while the ball is well outside, and the refs have had enough. Middleton gets two free throws and makes the second.

Good insights here:

A 3-pointer from de Colo, another USA foul, and Popovich calls timeout with the USA leading 43-36, pending some free throws by Fournier.

Durant has 21. That’s nearly half of the USA’s 43 points, and the lead is double digits again.

Speaking of inside play, and speaking of Duke, should Zion Williamson be on this team? He’s not the size of a tree like JaVale McGee, who hasn’t been in the game, but he plays bigger than his height and might give France something to think about in the paint.

Adebayo has to be the defensive stopper, and he is.

France, meanwhile, forgets that layups exist, and they let Tatum run down for two more.

First foul on Durant. Coming out of the timeout, France remembers it can go inside and does so.

A couple of free throws on successive possession, and France has whittled the lead to eight.

People have such an irrational hatred of my alma mater. Really! We’re nice people! With some … highly notable exceptions.