I got tied up on other things and was therefore unable to report on the game on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Basically, what happened was this: In the second quarter, the USA edged out to a 32-42 lead, and then they just slowly pulled away for the rest of the game. Turkey depends on a zone defense, and once they fell behind, they simply didn't have enough firepower to catch up.
Kevin Durant was again magnificent. He was 3/4 from 2-point range, 7/13 from 3-point range, and 1/2 from the line for a total of 28 points. To put that in perspective, the whole rest of the team was only 4/20 from 3-point range. Furthermore, Durant scored almost all of his points while the game was still in doubt. Early in the second half, the USA led 32-48, and at that point Durant had 26 of our 48 points. In the last three games of the tournament, Durant scored 33 points against Russia, 38 points against Lithuania, and 28 points against Turkey. He is the reason we won.
I also want to give credit to Coach K. He won the NCAA Tournament this year with a team that had no high-quality players, and he won this tournament with only one high-quality player. He is amazing, and he deserves all the credit he gets.
So now, for the first time since 1998, the USA holds both the Olympic Gold Medal and the FIBA World Championship. This makes me extraordinarily happy.
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