USA Basketball Defeats Spain [107 - 100]To Win Gold Medal At London Olympic

There may still be no doubt of that after the Americans 107-100 victory at North Greenwich Arena, but Team USA's second consecutive gold medal game win over Spain was hardly a leisurely ride down the adjacent River Thames. The Americans led by one at the half, trailed briefly in the third quarter and never really had a comfortable margin.

As good as Spain is with Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro and Serge Ibaka - all either current or former NBA players - when the U.S. replaces All-Star with All-Star, it wears down an opponent. It might be possible to stop one star. But to stop one after another after another?

The U.S. has won 14 of the 16 gold-medal games in which it has played and is now 130-5 in Olympic games. The U.S. has now won 17 consecutive Olympics games and furthered distanced itself from the bronze-medal debacle at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Not coincidentally, the U.S. turnaround in this decade began when Jerry Colangelo took over as USA Basketball's chairman in 2005, stabilizing the program by naming Mike Krzyzewski coach and securing long-term commitment from the USA's best NBA players.

The ability of James, Chris Paul and Deron Williams to create open shots for themselves and others, namely Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant - made it near impossible for an opponent to stop the U.S. from scoring.

While the rest of the world has closed the gap in 20 years since the 1992 Dream Team at the Barcelona, James, Bryant, Anthony, Durant, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and the rest ensured the world lags behind. With Colangelo's leadership, the U.S. is in outstanding shape headed into the 2014 World Cup in Spain and the 2016 Rio Olympics, especially given the tentative plan not to make the competition 23-and-under for Rio.

FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann said, "It would probably be premature right now …… to make any changes in the Olympic program.

"The feeling is that we will not be proposing an under-23 for 2016."

That sounds good to NBA players, such as Bryant, James and Durant, who have bought in to the USA Basketball do not want to see an age limit.

Earlier Sunday, Russia beat Argentina 81-77 for the bronze medal. It was the Russians' first Olympic basketball medal since 1988 when the Soviet Union won gold. That was the last Olympics before professional basketball players were allowed to compete.

Team USA Vs. Lithuania Final Score: LeBron James Saves Americans In 99-94 Win

LeBron James scored 9 of his 20 points in the final four minutes for the U.S. (4-0), which had looked nearly invincible in thrashing Nigeria 156-73 on Thursday night and breaking several records. But the Americans were reminded that the path to the gold medal is loaded with traps and Lithuania nearly sprang one.

"You want to get tested. The best teams want to be tested. We love the competition," James said. "I think we've got some of the greatest competitors in our league, in this world, so you want to have a game where you feel like you were tested, and we had that today."

Carmelo Anthony added 20 points, Kevin Durant 16 and Chris Paul added seven rebounds, six assists and four of the U.S. team's 17 steals.

Linas Kleiza scored 25 to lead Lithuania, which led by 84-82 with 5:50 to play. After the U.S. took a three-point lead, Lithuania would not go away and pulled within 87-86 on Darius Songaila's bucket with 4:12 left.

That's when James, who has already won an MVP trophy and NBA title this year, took control of the offense.

"I've been kind of doing everything else, which I'm OK with. I'm here to do all the little things, do whatever this team needs, especially from Coach K's perspective, but like I told you guys I can also score," James said. "I'm blessed and happy that I was able to make a few buckets down the stretch."
James knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and after Paul stole the inbounds pass, James took a pass down the right side and delivered one of his trademark dunks, a basket that brought the American players off the bench and seemed to restore world basketball order.