Key events
USA 46-36 France, 1:32 left, 2nd quarter: Will that slam give France some momentum?
Not right away. Curry hits another 3. Then LeBron gets a steal and feeds Booker, who lays it in despite Fournier fouling him from behind.
Booker hits the free throw for a double-digit lead.
USA 40-36 France, 2:13 left, 2nd quarter: LeBron makes the free throw – the first by either team!
Adebayo fouls Yabusele with one second left on the shot clock. Now France will have its first free throws. Three of them, in fact. He makes the first two and misses the third.
Booker misses a 3 as he falls out of bounds. De Colo also misses, and Durant hits a long one.
Yabusele works inside and SLAMS OVER LEBRON, who’s called for the foul. Yikes. He also makes the free throw.
USA 36-31 France, 3:26 left, 2nd quarter: De Colo scores, but then LeBron simply drives the length of the court, lays it in and is fouled.
Timeout France.
USA 34-29 France, 3:59 left, 2nd quarter: Booker misses this time, but Adebayo grabs the rebound, and some nifty passes leave one of the best shooters in history, Stephen Curry, wide open for 3. Makes it.
Yabusele scores inside. Adebayo scores way inside for a nice dunk.
And now we’ve got players facing off at midcourt.
USA 29-27 France, 4:41 left, 2nd quarter: Bam Adebayo is in as the USA sub four players. Their first possession results in a shot-clock violation.
Adebayo plays good D on Wembanyana.
Miss, miss, miss, then LeBron takes a defensive rebound and drives the lane for a tough layup against Wembanyana.
Wembanyana answers on the other end in the post.
Booker steps up for a 3.
USA 24-25 France, 7:10 left, 2nd quarter: Durant misses, then Coulibaly and Strazel do a give-and-go for a Coulibaly dunk.
Timeout USA.
USA 24-23 France, 7:47 left, 2nd quarter: Davis blocks a shot and takes a feed from Holiday in transition to score.
Wembanyana with a putback slam that’s legal in FIBA and illegal in the NBA – right on the rim.
Davis gets a rebound and a dunk.
Finally another 3 for France – Yabusele.
The veteran Nando de Colo will make an appearance.
Durant misses, and Strazel banks in a 3. Suddenly the lead has dropped from seven to one.
Can this be a best-of-seven series? This is fantastic to watch.
France have the rebounding edge, 13-10, but they’re 1-for-9 from 3-point range. The USA scored nine points on transition.
Wembanyana has seven – four other players have two each.
Booker has seven; Edwards has six.
End 1st quarter: USA 20-15 France
From the timeout, Wembanyana comes back in, and LeBron takes his first break.
Coulibaly scores inside after Gobert posts up against Tatum – hey, it wasn’t a dunk!
Wembanyana rushes a 3-pointer. Fournier also hits the front of the rim.
Edwards steps back and hits a 3.
USA 17-13 France, 1:59 left, 1st quarter: Steal by James, over to Curry, then to Tatum for the transition slam.
Fournier has to shoot from nearly midcourt to beat the shot clock. He misses, but so does Tatum from the corner.
Gobert gets a dunk inside – are all of France’s points off 3s and dunks?
Edwards with a steal, over to Davis, back to Edwards, who calmly sees the defense retreat and hits a 3.
Timeout France.
USA 12-11 France, 4:01 left, 1st quarter: Durant draws a foul from Gobert. Reminder: five fouls in international basketball, not six as in the NBA.
Jayson Tatum didn’t play against Serbia, but he’s coming in now. He had a big game against France in the final in Tokyo.
USA 12-11 France, 4:52 left, 1st quarter: That’s 7 points already for Wembanyana.
Then James makes a slick pass to Booker for 2.
Wembanyana will take a break. Rudy Gobert comes in. This is a talented team.
USA 10-11 France, 6:14 left, 1st quarter: Wembanyana scores inside.
Curry has his second turnover in a minute. Wembanyana tries another 3 but misses.
Ntilikina fouls Durant, who takes exception.
Yabusele goes up in transition, but JAMES SLAMS IT AWAY.
And Durant hits a 3.
Booker scores inside in transition. But then Yabusele slams on a feed from Wembanyana, Curry misses a 3, and Wembanyana slams in transition.
USA 5-5 France, 8:50 left, 1st quarter: A miss each way to start, then a feed to James in transition for the first points of the game.
Wembanyana answers with a 3. Booker responds in kind.
Batum gets a putback slam.
Tipoff: USA win possession.
Starters
France: Ntilikina, Cordinier, Batum, Yabusele, Wembanyana
USA: Curry, Booker, Durant, James, Embiid
And it’s gold for the US women in the 4×4. By a long way.
The track and field team have done their part for the medal haul. Over to you, LeBron and company.
But the medal count is one thing – this is, as I said in the preamble, a game we should savor. It could be a classic.
Medal count
The USA have overwhelmingly won the total medal count in these Olympics, and any weighted system that counts golds more than silvers or bronzes will also favor the 2028 host nation.
But we’re told that only gold medals matter for some reason. Apparently, no one told Shelby McEwen, who agreed to a jumpoff after tying for first in the high jump and wound up taking silver.
The USA trail China by two gold medals, 38-36. China only have a reasonable shot at two more – they’re in the finals of women’s middleweight boxing (later today), and they’re favored in women’s heavyweight weightlifting (tomorrow).
That means the USA will have to take advantage of their remaining opportunities. This is one of those opportunities. The others are the track cycling women’s omnium, the women’s volleyball final, the women’s 76kg wrestling final, and the women’s basketball final.
But first, the women’s 4x400m relay, which should end right before this game starts. If they get on with it.
Who’s who
FRANCE
The veterans are captain and small forward Nicolas Batum (age 35, Philadelphia), point guard Andrew Albicy (34, Herbalife Gran Canaira/ESP), center Rudy Gobert (32, Minnesota) and shooting guard Nando de Colo (37, LDLC ASVEL/FRA).
Other NBA players: Wembanyana (San Antonio), Evan Fournier (Detroit), Bilal Coulibaly (Washington). The latter is the youngest on the team at age 19.
USA
LeBron James (L.A. Lakers) is 39, and it doesn’t show. Stephen Curry, the captain, is 36. Kevin Durant (Phoenix) is 35, Jrue Holiday (Boston) is 34, and Joel Embiid (Philadelphia) and Derrick White (Boston) are both 30.
Coach Steve Kerr has controversially kept Jayson Tatum (Boston) on the bench for a lot of the tournament. Tyrese Halliburton (Indiana) also has seen scant playing time.
Stat leaders (per game)
FRANCE
Points
Wembanyama 13.8
Yabusele 12.8
Cordinier 10.6
Fournier 10.2
Rebounds
Wembanyama 10.2 (second among all teams)
Gobert 4.2
Assists
Wembanyama 3.6
Batum 2.4
Blocks
Wembanyama 2.0 (first)
Gobert 1.6 (sixth)
Batum 1.0
Steals
Wembanyama 2.2 (first)
Cordinier 1.4
USA
Points
James 14.2
Edwards 13.8
Durant 13.6
Curry 13.0
Embiid 13.0
Assists
James 8.2 (second)
Holiday 3.5
Booker 3.4
Rebounds
James 7.0
Davis 6.2
Tatum 6.0 (in limited playing time)
Blocks
Embiid 1.3 (sixth)
Turnovers
James 3.8 (fourth)
3-pointers
Curry 2.8 (seventh)
Durant 2.2
Booker 2.2
Preamble
We all wanted this final, didn’t we?
The star-studded US team, with a few veterans going for one more round at the Olympics. Then a very talented French team, with perhaps the best young player in the world in Victor Wembanyama, playing in front of a lively home crowd.
And both teams have shown plenty of resilience in getting to this stage, so if one team happens to take a double-digit lead, there’s no reason to think the game is over.
Welcome to one of the most-anticipated events of these Games, with good reason.
Beau will be with your shortly. In the meantime, here’s Bryan Graham on the hostile atmosphere that will greet the US as they face the host nation:
The Americans understand that France will pose a far different challenge amid a uniquely hostile environment inside the cauldron-like Bercy Arena, where the hosts will look to become the first side to win men’s basketball gold on home soil since the United States in 1996. Surely it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the curious Victor Wembanyama, who in one night could not only join Léon Marchand, Teddy Riner, Antoine Dupont and the Brothers Lebrun as emblems of the Paris Olympics, but encroach the broader folk-hero pantheon of Cerdan, Hinault, Killy and Zidane by toppling the 17-time Olympic champions on the eve of the closing ceremony.
“We’re expecting them to play the game of their life,” Steph Curry, an Olympic debutant, said. “They’re going to have the home-court adrenaline, they’re riding a big momentum after these last two games. We’ve got to expect them to play great, but we expect that from ourselves as well.”
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