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US wins 8th straight Olympic gold

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3 months ago

August 12, 2024

PARIS — Means again on July 27, Diana Taurasi instructed a bunch of reporters she thought France might push the U.S. ladies’s basketball group because the People sought an unprecedented eighth straight Olympic gold medal.

Seems, essentially the most embellished basketball Olympian of all time knew what she was speaking about.

It took 21 factors, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks from A’ja Wilson — plus a late bucket by Kahleah Copper and essential block by Breanna Stewart — for Crew USA to drag away from a 10-point third quarter deficit and safe a 67-66 win over the host nation to win gold Sunday on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“We simply knew what we needed to do,” Wilson, who was named MVP of the event, stated after. “We believed in one another and that is the best factor about it.”

With the U.S. clinging to a 62-59 lead, Stewart obtained a fingertip on France’s 3 try, an enormous defensive play with 20 seconds to go. On the different finish, Wilson hit one in all two free throws to make it a two possession recreation.

2024 Olympic medals: Who’s main the medal rely? Comply with alongside as we monitor the medals for each sport.

France’s Gabby Williams hit a shot on the buzzer however the ahead wasn’t behind the 3-point line when it left her hand, leaving France in need of tying the sport and leaving the U.S. with a one-point victory.

It was a scrappy and sloppy battle, the U.S. taking pictures simply 34% and France taking pictures 32%. The People dedicated 19 turnovers, resulting in 14 factors for the French.

Tied 25-25 at halftime, France got here out of the locker room and shortly constructed a 10-point lead, the most important deficit the U.S. had confronted all event.

A’ja Wilson dragged US ladies’s basketball to Olympic gold

A’ja Wilson is the perfect participant on the planet and it’s not even shut. The U.S. ladies’s basketball group have their eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal due to it.

Wilson completed with 21 factors and 13 rebounds, each recreation highs. She additionally had 4 blocks, together with two monster ones early within the third quarter that stored France from pulling away when the People couldn’t purchase a bucket, be it in Euros, {dollars} or francs.

This was the ugliest recreation the U.S. ladies had in, effectively, perpetually. And if we’re being sincere, that they had no enterprise profitable it. They completed with 19 turnovers and had been a paltry 19 of 56 (34%) from the ground. However Wilson dragged them to the highest of the medals podium. In case you can’t recognize that, when you aren’t impressed by her or are nonetheless hung up on who wasn’t on this roster, that’s your drawback. Learn Nancy Armour’s full column on A’ja Wilson’s gold medal recreation efficiency.

USA vs France basketball highlights

Listed here are highlights from the People’ one-point win over France within the Olympic last.

USA holds slender lead

Gabby Williams hit a protracted 2 with about 1:30 left, Kahleah Cooper answered with a layup out of the timeout to offer the People a three-point lead lead with 54 seconeds left. A’ja Wilson made it 63-59 with a free throw with about 20 seconds left earlier than France’s Marine Johannes made a pair of free throws.

Jackie Younger fouls out

Massive improvement with 2:34 to play: Jackie Younger simply picked up her fifth foul for the U.S. and is headed again to the bench.

USA vs France tied up late in 4Q

Issues are getting tight. Is that this recreation going to come back all the way down to who has the ball final? It very effectively might. Lots of people tuning in for the primary time are stunned on the physicality of the sport. Welcome to worldwide basketball. That is often what it’s like. As for any feedback concerning the refs, simply do not forget that the USA has shot 24 free throws, and France has shot simply 9.

USA 45, France 43: Finish of 3Q

The nationwide emergency seems to be over — for now. A’ja Wilson is getting ticked off, and that’s often when the People begin rolling. Wilson is as much as 4 blocks (it appears like extra) and dominated that quarter defensively when the U.S. actually wanted it. She’s obtained 14 factors and 12 rebounds. Two good Sabrina Ionescu-to-Napheesa Collier baskets additionally helped the People get again into it after trailing by 10.

France isn’t going away although, and we ought to be in for a heck of a fourth quarter.

Marine Johannes sinks a 3 to tie it up

Marine Johannes sunk an enormous 3 with 25 seconds left within the third to tie it at 43-43.

USA retakes lead in third

Kelsey Plum hit a pair of 3s about haflway by the third, and A’ja Wilson got here up with two big blocks to assist the U.S. regain a 43-40 lead with 45 seconds left within the third.

France comes out storming in second half

Lots of people thought the U.S. would have a cakewalk to its eighth consecutive gold. France has different concepts. After an 8-0 run that gave the French a 33-25 result in open the second half, the U.S. wanted a timeout to speak issues over. This crowd is just going to get louder.

USA vs France rating: 25-25 at halftime

We’ve obtained a ball recreation, people. It’s all tied up after an important tip-in from Crew USA’s Napheesa Collier simply earlier than the halftime buzzer.

Actual discuss: that half was ugly. The U.S. shot 29%, France shot 28% and the groups mixed for 19 whole turnovers. Goodness. A’ja Wilson has six factors however is simply 2-of-9 from the sphere, whereas Stewart is 1-of-6 with 5 factors. Each Wilson and Collier have 9 rebounds every. Gabby Williams leads France with eight factors. The U.S. appears to be like sloppy and disjointed and in the event that they wish to hold the streak of seven-gold-medals-in-a-row-and- counting going, they’re going to wish to scrub up lots within the second half.

Marine Fauthoux nails a 3 to tie it in 2Q

France’s Marine Fauthoux buried a protracted 3 with 2:45 left within the first half to tie it 23-23. The bucket despatched the gang right into a frenzy.

USA vs France rating: 15-9, 1Q

Early ideas: A lot for residence courtroom benefit. France will not be getting any pleasant whistles. The truth is, they’re getting fairly a number of unfriendly ones because the French have already been referred to as for seven fouls (the U.S. has been whistled for only one). The People are attending to the road lots, and is already 7-of-10 from the stripe (France has shot zero).

France is getting a variety of attractiveness, and a variety of offensive rebounds (they have already got six). But when they wish to win this recreation, they’ve obtained to transform a few of these appears to be like, particularly those across the rim (bonus factors if they’ll get some People in foul hassle on the similar time).

USA makes first substitutions

Kelsey Plum got here in for Chelsea Grey with 4:32 left within the first quarter. Shortly after, Alyssa Thomas got here in for Breanna Stewart, Kahleah Cooper got here in for Jackie Younger, and Brittney Griner got here in for A’ja Wilson.

What the gang is like at ladies’s basketball Olympic last

USA basketball lineup vs. France

Why mess with what works? The People are going with their similar beginning lineup that they’ve had your complete knockout spherical, with Jackie Younger, who has performed extraordinarily effectively the final two video games, sticking within the beginning lineup as Diana Taurasi stays in a reserve position. Of be aware: Coach Cheryl Reeve stated the opposite day that with a view to win a gold medal, Jewell Loyd has to play effectively. Look ahead to her to have a key position off the bench at this time.

USA ladies’s basketball coaches

Cheryl Reeve, head coach of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, will function the pinnacle coach of the 2024 USA ladies’s nationwide group. Kara Lawson (Duke), Joni Taylor (Texas A&M) and Mike Thibault (Washington Mystics) will function Reeve’s assistant coaches. Reeve and her workers beforehand led the USA ladies to a gold medal on the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s World Cup.

Lisa Leslie, Sue Fowl, LeBron James in the home

Basketball legends Lisa Leslie, Sue Fowl, LeBron James and Daybreak Staley are readily available to observe the U.S. ladies go for his or her eighth staight gold medal. Vanessa Bryant can be courtside for the sport.

A’ja Wilson Olympic stats

U.S. ladies’s basketball star A’ja Wilson leds the group in scoring (18.2 factors per recreation), rebounds (9.6), blocks (2.4) and steals (1.6).

Breanna Stewart Olympic stats

Breanna Stewart is second on the group in scoring with 18.0 factors per recreation. She has additionally averaged 5.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 blocks per recreation.

USA vs. France basketball prediction

This recreation goes to be more difficult than folks assume. Sure, the U.S. ladies are a dominant dynasty. However the French crowd is the last word sixth (wo)man and can make it powerful for the People. If France comes out pulling down 3s, it’ll be shut for awhile. However the distinction, because it often is, can be A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart. Nobody on the Olympics has had a solution for that dynamic duo. France would be the newest on that checklist.

What time does USA basketball play at this time?

USA and France tip off within the Olympic gold medal recreation at 9:30 a.m. ET.

USA vs France basketball the place to observe

The gold medal ladies’s basketball recreation can be proven reside on NBC and Peacock.

USA ladies’s basketball scores

Monday, July 29: USA 102, Japan 76
Thursday, Aug. 1: USA 87, Belgium 74
Sunday, Aug. 4: USA 87, Germany 68
Wednesday, Aug. 7: USA 88, Nigeria 74
Friday, Aug. 9: USA 85, Australia 64
Sunday, Aug. 11: USA vs. France, 9:30 a.m. ET in gold-medal recreation

France’s Gabby Williams, Marine Johannes: What to know

France is led by two standout WNBA veterans in ahead Gabby Williams and guard Marine Johannes. Williams likes to assault the rim and end by contact together with her sturdy body and Johannes is Caitlin-Clark like in that as quickly as she crosses half courtroom, she’s keen to shoot. Iliana Rupert, whose brother performs within the NBA, can be a tricky matchup.

Brittney Griner extra grateful than ever in Paris Olympics

Brittney Griner is aware of the face she presents to the world is usually a masks. She is aware of what you see — the goofy grin, the 6-foot-9 massive child who loves skateboarding and off-roading, the intimidating shot-blocker on the basketball courtroom — is just a fraction of the reality.

To outsiders it appears to be like like Griner has moved on shortly from her 10-month detention in Russian custody, a terrifying and isolating stretch of time that will’ve damaged most individuals. When she poses for pictures with followers, simply banks in an eight-footer, it appears to be like like issues are again to regular. However they’re not, and he or she’s not.

“It’s at all times with me, and there’s positively moments of like, oh wow this may very well be completely completely different — I may very well be seeing this stunning view by bars,” Griner stated Saturday from USA observe. “It doesn’t go away. It makes you recognize all the pieces a bit of bit extra too.”

Olympic basketball gold medal historical past

America has dominated on the Summer time Video games and has medaled in each Olympics they’ve competed in (they did not compete in 1980 as a consequence of a nationwide Olympic boycott).

In whole, the U.S. ladies’s basketball group has received eleven medals – 9 gold, one silver (1976), and one bronze (1992). The U.S. ladies have received seven straight gold medals relationship again to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

USA ladies’s basketball Olympics roster

The U.S. ladies’s basketball roster is made up of eight WNBA champions, three WNBA MVPs and 5 WNBA Rookies of the 12 months.

Guards: Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Grey, Sabrina Ionescu, Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Plum, Diana Taurasi, Jackie Younger
Forwards: Breanna Stewart, Alyssa Thomas, A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier
Middle: Brittney Griner

A’ja Wilson’s basketball dominance is pushed by pleasure

A’ja Wilson will hold piling up double-doubles, pushing the boundaries of what a ahead on this recreation can do and, if all goes based on plan, lead the U.S. ladies’s basketball group to a file eighth straight Olympic gold medal on the 2024 Paris Olympics. Possibly the crowning of the most recent U.S. dynasty, led by an distinctive expertise, will make you tune in. If not, Wilson figures, that’s your loss.

“Forwards, facilities, no matter you wish to name us, we don’t get the love we should always,” Wilson instructed USA TODAY Sports activities. “However I don’t pay it any thoughts as a result of the true followers, those who actually perceive and love the sport, they perceive how forwards and facilities are an enormous half. So yeah, I really feel like we’re underneath appreciated. However I like my place.”

Nonetheless, the perfect participant on this planet is aware of there’s more likely to be extra eyeballs than ever on ladies’s basketball this summer time. She will’t wait to placed on a present.

USA ladies’s basketball Olympic gold medals

USA ladies’s basketball has medaled in each Olympics it has participated, profitable a complete of 11 Olympic medals, together with 9 gold, one sliver and one bronze. Here is how the U.S. ladies have carried out since 1976, when ladies’s basketball debuted on the Montreal Olympics:

2020, Tokyo: Gold (90–75 win over Japan)
2016, Rio: Gold (101–72 win over Spain)
2012, London: Gold (86-50 win over France)
2008, Athens: Gold (92–65 win Australia)
2004, Athens: Gold (74–63 over Australia)
2000, Sydney: Gold (76–54 over Australia)
1996, Atlanta: Gold (111–87 win over Brazil)
1992, Barcelona: Bronze (88–74 win over Cuba in bronze medal recreation)
1988, Seoul: Gold (77–70 win over Yugoslavia)
1984, Los Angeles: Gold (85–55 win over South Korea)
1980, Moscow: USA boycotted Olympics as a result of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1976, Canada: Silver (83–67 loss to Czechoslovakia)

Diana Taurasi Olympic gold medals

Diana Taurasi and Sue Fowl (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) are the one two American ladies’s basketball gamers to win 5 Olympic gold medals. Taurasi can turn out to be the primary to earn six gold medals in Paris.