Super Durant, USA and Coach K in history

There is a lot of talk and writing about alleged cracks in the U.S. dominance, between absences and some difficulties in the round, then when the games really count the gap between Team USA and the rest of the world is still sky-high.

So the Rio 2016 Olympic final is practically a replay of the rainbow challenge of two years ago: Coach K’s team, which bids farewell to the national team with a resounding 88-1 record, overwhelms Serbia (96-66) and takes home yet another Olympic gold medal in the collection, the third consecutive after Beijing and London.

Just as in the Madrid rainbow challenge, the MVP of the final is again a stellar Kevin Durant (30 points), but in all areas of the game there is no match between the two teams.

It is Macvan’s to score the first basket of a game balanced only for a quarter, that is, when both lineups have wet dust, with the Serbs leading for the first eight minutes. Then KD enters the scene and the valley darkens for Djordjevic’s men: the new Golden State acquisition scores with incredible ease, rising to 24 points at halftime (compared to Serbia’s 29 total), with five threes on the board, and the U.S. in an instant flies over a 20-point lead, splitting the game.

There is not only Durant, but also dominance in rebounding (Cousins already at 11) and a closed area, forcing opponents to shoot a lot from the arc (3/17). Complicating everything was also the 3/15 of the Teodosic-Bogdanovic pair.

The +23 with which they go to rest is already a judgment, with the maximum lead updated further with triples by Anthony and Thompson, at the start of the resumption, far exceeding the 30-point gap. So the NBA stars also give some show to the large audience of the Carioca Arena, going with some continuity on the counterattack or taking advantage of the immense athletic skills. The Serbian lineup lacks the weapons to even attempt a comeback, in a game made even more complicated by the foul problems of Kalinic and Raduljica.

In fact, the gap gets wider and wider, but the progress of Djordjevic’s lineup, with a historic silver medal, remains top-notch. Simply, the NBA stars are still from another planet.

In collaboration with basketissimo.com