Three Celtics win gold as US takes down France in Olympic final

In what likely was their final game as Olympians, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant willed Team USA to its fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.

The trio of future Basketball Hall of Famers and the U.S. held off a spirited upset bid by host France to win 98-87 at Bercy Arena.

Curry, the hero of Thursday’s semifinal comeback against Serbia, scored a team-high 24 and drilled eight 3-pointers, including four in the final three minutes to put away a French squad led by 20-year-old phenom Victor Wembanyama (game-high 26 points, seven rebounds).

James finished with 14 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, five steals and one block. Even at age 39, he was Team USA’s best player throughout the Olympics. Durant, who was bumped up to the starting lineup for the final, scored 15. He, James and Curry all played at least 29 of the game’s 40 minutes.

Jayson Tatum, whose DNP-CD against Serbia sparked widespread criticism of head coach Steve Kerr, played 11 largely nondescript minutes in the final. The Celtics player who had the greatest impact Saturday was guard Jrue Holiday, who hit one clutch 3-pointer just before halftime and another in the fourth quarter, with both stretching the U.S.’s lead to double digits.

Tatum checked in midway through the first quarter and quickly made an impact, flying downcourt for a transition dunk off a James steal within his first minute on the court.

That was the only basket Tatum made — he attempted two jumpers and missed both — but he was active on the defensive end. He won a pair of tough first-half matchups against France’s centers, helping force a Wembanyama turnover in the lane and later denying a Rudy Gobert post-up.

Overall, though, Boston’s centerpiece superstar was a bit player in the win, as he was throughout his time in Paris. He finished with two points, three rebounds and one steal.

Three years after averaging 15.1 points per game at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — second-most on that team behind Durant — Tatum scored just 21 total points in these Olympics.

With much of this Team USA roster now likely done with international play — seven of the 12 will be 34 or older in 2028, and Curry, James and Durant all will be over 40 — the 26-year-old Tatum should be among the headliners on the next Olympic team in Los Angeles. The 27-year-old Jaylen Brown could be, too, after being controversially left off the 2024 roster. But Kerr clearly favored his old guard in this one.

Holiday finished with six points on 2-of-5 shooting, four assists and one rebound in 19 minutes. Derrick White, the only Celtic to see action in each of Team USA’s first five Olympic contests, was one of the odd men out Saturday. After a less-than-stellar outing against Serbia, the 30-year-old guard watched the finale from the bench along with Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, the U.S.’s 12th man for most of the tournament.

All told, Boston’s three Olympic representatives scored a total of 11 points between the semifinal and final, with Holiday providing nine of those. While Kerr occasionally used two Celtics as part of the same lineup, Tatum, Holiday and White did not play a minute together after helping Boston bulldoze its way to an NBA championship two months earlier.

This was the second Olympic gold medal for Tatum and Holiday and the first for White, who joined the team during Olympic training camp after Kawhi Leonard was removed due to injury.

One former Celtic did put up big numbers in the knockout rounds, possibly earning himself another NBA opportunity in the process. Guerschon Yabusele, drafted in the first round by Boston in 2016, was the only player at the Olympics to rank in the top five in scoring in the quarterfinals (22 points vs. Canada), semifinals (17 points vs. Germany) and finals (20 vs. the U.S.), outshining the generationally talented Wembanyama in multiple games.

The bruising French forward, who spent two seasons with the Celtics and currently plays for Real Madrid in the EuroLeague, posterized James with an emphatic and-one dunk and later converted a twisting layup to beat the first-half buzzer.

Serbia defeated Germany earlier in the day to win the bronze.

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