AP photo
BEIJING — The gold medal belongs again to the USA.
The U.S. men's basketball team beat Spain 118-107 at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on Sunday to secure a 13th Olympic gold medal for the USA.
Spain held on throughout the game, trailing by four with about two minutes left in the game. Dwyane Wade hit a 3 with 2:02 left then a Kobe Bryant drive and four Chris Paul free throws kept the Spaniards from getting any closer.
Wade scored 27 points with Bryant adding 20.
The game was worthy of the hype following the U.S. into this tournament and befitting an opponent like the defending world champions from Spain.
Spain insisted it not repeat a 37-point thrashing it suffered during pool play.
Behind driving floater after floater by Juan Carlos Navarro Spain kept clawing away in the second half until Rudy Fernandez nailed a 3-poiter with 8:13 left in the game.
That was the closest anyone had been that late in a game against the U.S., by about 20 minutes.
Spain played the U.S. much more aggressively on defense than in pool play with zone and man-to-man defense.
