The United States men’s basketball team felt the pressure and heard the scrutiny from their critics about how this group of men was not good enough to win the gold medal.
Saturday morning in Tokyo, they proved all the doubters wrong.
Kevin Durant scored 29 points as he led Team USA to an 87-82 victory over France at Saitama Super Arena to bring home the gold medal, the fourth straight for the Americans.
Jayson Tatum added 19 points off the bench for Team USA, who used hardnosed defense in the third quarter to build a 14-point lead.