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SAITAMA, Japan – The dynasty continues.
The US women’s basketball team won their seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal, beating Japan 90-75 as the Games concluded on Sunday.
Japan were making their first appearance in the gold medal match, and since these Games had a fairly large support team, dozens of Japanese volunteers were in the stands behind one of the baskets.
Their compatriots made a valiant effort – Japan’s speed on the pitch is impressive and cunning playmaker Rui Machida is fun to watch – but they just couldn’t stop the American duo of Britney Griner and A’ja. Wilson.
At 6-foot-9, Griner is 20 inches taller than Japan’s tallest player, and that has allowed her to go to work on the inside offensively and control the paint defensively. Her 30 points (on 14 of 18 shots) is a new gold medal record for women, surpassing the 29 points Lisa Leslie had in 1996 against Brazil.
Griner also had five rebounds and three blocks.
Wilson, the 2020 WNBA MVP who won her first Olympic gold medal on her 25th birthday, had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
To try to stay out of the post where they were clearly going to struggle, Japan turned to the three points. They shot 31 as a team, but only eight were made. The long bounces of some of those duds became easy transition buckets for the United States.
The United States team dominated Japan 58-40 on points in the paint.
Up nine after a quarter and 11 points at halftime, the Americans really took control in the third quarter, climbing up to 24 points after a three point Breanna Stewart.
Dawn Staley has now won Olympic gold as a player, assistant coach and head coach; she is also the first black coach to lead the women’s team.
Several members of the US men’s team, which won gold on Saturday, were in the stands, as were Megan Rapinoe – the American football bronze medalist and Bird are engaged. With so few athletes able to have family and loved ones in Tokyo due to COVID-19, Bird and Rapinoe were the rare couple who got to celebrate together, kissing moments after the final buzzer.
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