Team USA defeated France 87-82 in men's basketball final at the Saitama Super Arena on Saturday, winning the gold medal of the event at the Tokyo Olympics.

This was the fourth straight time USA went home with the men's Olympic basketball gold. The team lost to France in their opener game in Tokyo, getting both the title and vengeance in the final seemed like decent payback.

Kevin Durant again was USA's biggest hero. He already surpassed Carmelo Anthony to become the national team scoring leader in the previous games. Though Durant did not find his touch most of the time from the 3-point line, his middle-range jumpers were still lethal enough.

Jayson Tatum became the other offensive problem that France had to find a solution for. He and Durant scored 11 and 21 points respectively in the first half, helping USA lead 44-39 in the first half while delivering only six assists as a whole.

France, which had enough NBA players and were able to match USA in athleticism to a certain degree, tried everything to slow down the pace of the game because it's suicidal to compete against their opponents in high-speed offense and defense.

Moreover, the best weapon to break USA's defensive style of switching everything is to make damage in the paint via big men. Rudy Gobert, whose offensive role in the NBA has been nothing but dunking, got 13 points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes in the first half.

Both Bam Adebayo and Draymond Green are too small in front of Gobert.

France once had two big men – Gobert and Moustapha Fall – on the court, only to maximize their size advantage. However, the team's most important offensive weapon Evan Fournier lost his magic under the defense of Jrue Holiday.

American players seemed so happy after the final, not only for the victory, but also because the victory came so hard.

29 years ago in Barcelona, USA showed the rest of the world how the basketball should be played. Since then, the world has been trying to catch up and they managed to beat USA in multiple major events, both World Cup (Championships) and the Olympics included.

USA did not necessarily encounter the most threatening opponents in Tokyo. Team like Lithuania, Serbia and Greece, which have the world's best big men and size advantage, failed to come to Tokyo. In the NBA, the best centers, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Nikola Vucevic, Rudy Gobert, are not Americans. None of the top 5 rebounders in the 2021 NBA season is American and there is only one American player from top 10. But that's Russell Westbrook, a point guard.

Despite the gold medal, the world is knocking on USA's door in basketball.