Red, White and Whew! U.S. survive France scare, win 8th Olympic gold

A’ja Wilson and Brittney Griner react after winning the gold medal against France at Bercy Arena in Paris on Aug. 11, 2024. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

PARIS — With just over two minutes remaining in Sunday’s gold medal game against France, leading by just a single point, Kelsey Plum drew a two-shot foul, stepped to the free throw line, smiled, and had a little conversation with God.

“God is so good, He has a sense of humor,” Plum said after the game. “This year has been absolutely brutal on me. The fact that I’m even playing basketball now is big. So just to be on the free throw line, getting to shoot free throws for gold medals … ”

Perhaps divine intervention helped Plum’s crucial free throws go in. Perhaps not. Either way, under crushing pressure — staring the end of the Olympics’ greatest dynasty right in the face — Plum and the rest of Team USA stepped up and hit the clutch shots they needed to hold off France by the narrowest of margins, 67-66.

“History doesn’t earn you another [gold medal],” Diana Taurasi said. “You’ve got to earn it. All these teams have ante’d up, they’re all spending money, they’re investing in their team. You see it in the tournament. Any given night, an team could have won.”

The game wasn’t over until the final shot. Down three, France’s Gabby Williams dribbled up the court, launched a shot, watched it bank in, heard the French crowd explode in delight … and then realized her foot was on the line. Game, United States.

A’ja Wilson led Team USA with 21 points, and Plum and Kahleah Copper both came off the bench to contribute 12 points apiece. This was a ragged win — Team USA only shot 34 percent from the floor, and 17 percent from three-point range, all night — but in the Olympics, a win is a win.

The floor at Bercy Arena still had scorch marks from where Steph Curry had caught fire on Saturday night, leading Team USA to a victory over France’s men’s team. The United States ran out a starting lineup of Chelsea Gray, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Jackie Young and Wilson. Perhaps it was gold-medal jitters, but neither team was particularly sharp in the opening minutes, with turnovers, poor shot selection and sloppy play marring both ends of the court.

France, by both accident and design, managed to upend the United States’ two key drivers: a smothering defense and a pass-happy offense. Early on, the French were simply faster on the offensive end than the American defense, moving the ball and cutting to the basket in a way that was downright American. At the other end of the court, France’s chaotic defense forced the United States into far too many easy early turnovers. But experience has a way of winning out, as does sheer physicality, and at the end of one quarter the United States led, 15-9.

Celebrity Row on the U.S. end of the court was stacked with gold medalists, including LeBron James, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Scottie Pippen and Lisa Leslie. In the second quarter, they saw an American team that all too often ended up in one-on-one offensive matchups, or failed to secure defensive rebounds, and if France could have hit an open 3 once in a while, the United States would have been in real trouble. As it was, France tied up the game at 20 with 4:17 remaining in the first half.

With the shot clock running out and 2:45 left in the half, France’s Marine Fathoux did her best Steph Curry impression, draining a near-logo 3-pointer that kept the score knotted and the hometown crowd deeply engaged. Some rough fouls and chippy defense dented the United States’ vibe, and the teams went into halftime tied at 25.

The halftime stats weren’t pretty. Wilson went 2-of-9 from the field in the first half and 2-of-4 from the line; Stewart shot even worse percentage-wise at 1-of-6. Overall, Team USA shot 29 percent, France 28 percent. The key stat: France scored 12 points off the Americans’ 13 first-half turnovers.

Very uncharacteristic slew of misses at the rim/in the paint for USAB. Have no offensive flow, even when not turning the ball over pic.twitter.com/RuWoMWTtM1

— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) August 11, 2024

The second half began much the same way the first half ended — with France out-hustling the United States, and the Americans missing easy shots in the paint and putbacks. France scored the first 10 points of the second half to force the United States into an early stop-the-bleeding timeout and rapid recovery mode.

“I don’t think any of us were startled or lost composure,” Ionescu said. “We were playing a really good France team in France. We understood they were going to have the crowd, everyone behind them. That room sometimes feels bigger when you have that.”

Plum finally got the United States on the board nearly four minutes into the second half with a 3-pointer, and Wilson turned a steal into a fast-break layup seconds later to restore a bit of sanity to the United States sideline. Soon afterward, Plum poured in another 3, and in just over a minute, the United States had cut France’s lead from 10 to 2.

And then, the inevitable happened. The United States’ shots began to fall, France began to struggle, and with 2:31 remaining in the third, Collier erased the last of France’s lead. Collier put the U.S. up 41-40 with a wide-open, under-the-basket layup that the Americans hadn’t been able to lock down all afternoon. The third quarter ended with the United States up 45-43 after a 20-8 run.

With gold on the line, the fourth quarter turned physical, with players from both teams colliding and hitting the floor hard. France held a two-point lead with 4:35 remaining, and the game was tied with less than four minutes remaining. The United States took the lead for good on a Stewart free throw with 3:45 left, shrugging off several more French attacks. Then came Williams’ last, desperate shot, a deep heave that banked in and would have tied the game if Williams’ foot hadn’t been on the line.

“I was behind her, so I saw it was a two,” Copper smiled. “No stress for me. I don’t know about the people on the bench.”

Sunday’s victory brings to a close yet another remarkable run for the United States women’s team. Heading into the gold medal game, Team USA won every game by double digits, and the steep third-quarter deficit that the Americans overcame is a testament to the team’s resilience.

The United States women’s team has not lost a game since falling in the semifinals in Barcelona to a Unified Soviet Union Team on Aug. 5, 1992. Only three members of the U.S. team — Taurasi, Alyssa Thomas and Brittney Griner — were even alive when that loss happened. No American under the age of 32 has ever seen the United States’ women’s team lose a game in the Olympics.

“Understanding the dynasty that was put in place for the last however many years, them having not lost a game, there’s pressure to that. But we’re here for a reason, and believing in one another,” Ionescu said. “For me it wasn’t really about not losing it, it was like, I want to go put a gold medal around my neck, because if I had silver, it would still be [left] here.”

This latest gold medal also has an important symbolic impact on these Games. It’s the 40th gold medal earned by the United States, tying Team USA with China for the most golds earned by any country. Team USA holds a significant edge in total medals, leading China 125-91.

For the Team USA women’s team, there’s no reason to think this gold medal trend won’t continue well into the foreseeable future. Women’s basketball doesn’t quite have the international dispersal of talent that the men’s game does. So the United States will be prohibitive favorites to win another gold heading into Los Angeles 2028 … but games like this gold medal one will likely keep the Americans from assuming that the medal is theirs before the Olympics begin.

For now, though, it’s time to celebrate. Plum, famous for her victory cigar photos, intends to fire up some of her own smokes. “I absolutely brought cigars to France. I’m going to have everybody puffing, supporting female business,” she said. “They don’t even know they’ll be smoking cigars, but they’ll be smoking my cigars tonight.” Victory cigars are the sweetest of all.