Les Bleues would not simply let Team USA do what they wanted.
The USA Basketball women’s national team won 67-66 vs. France in the 2024 Olympic women’s basketball gold medal match on Sunday afternoon in Paris.
Neither team led by more than 10 in this one. And while the Americans were leading for nearly 23 minutes in this game, Les Bleues were actually leading for most of the third quarter and held the Americans to just 33.9 percent shooting for game. Furthermore, France made all of their free throws. The Americans still made a respectable 79.4 percent of theirs.
A’ja Wilson led the American with 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Kahleah Copper and Kelsey Plum added 12 points each. For Les Bleues, Gabby Williams led with 19 points and 7 rebounds.
The United States have won eight straight gold medals, which is more than any other national team sport in Olympics history. Furthermore, they’ll be heavy favorites in 2028 when they host the games in Los Angeles.
As for Les Bleues, I’m happy to see that the French made life hell for the Americans in the Gold Medal match. Admittedly, I was getting tired of the narrative that the Americans would run over every country by 40 points each like the American men in the 1992 Olympics. While the Americans were still clearly better than the opposition, they still had to play solid team basketball to get there.
Congratulations to Team USA for winning the gold. And though they won’t get a medal, let’s give a hat tip to assistant coach Mike Thibault, the Washington Mystics General Manager and assistant coach Kara Lawson, who is Duke’s women’s basketball head coach and a former Mystics player. You may also know her as a former Washington Wizards TV color analyst.
The WNBA season will restart later this week, and we’ll see how everyone does then.