U.S. outlasts Spain for another men's basketball gold

London, England (Sports Network) - Make it back-to-back Olympic gold medals for the U.S. men's basketball team.

Four years after beating Spain for the title at the Beijing Olympics, the Americans repeated the feat with a 107-100 victory over the Spaniards to claim gold at the London Games.

It did not come easy.

Spain was within one at halftime and it was the same margin after three quarters, but the Americans used a 12-3 spurt early in the fourth to gain some breathing room and held off one last Spanish run to win it.

Kevin Durant drilled a three-pointer during the decisive burst and finished with 30 points for the Americans, while LeBron James chipped in 19 and added two key baskets in the closing minutes to help seal the 14th Olympic title for the United States. The Americans have won five of the six gold medals since NBA stars began Olympic play at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

"We knew we could have been beaten in this tournament, Argentina was good enough and Spain could have beaten us tonight," said Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who also guided the U.S. team in the 2008 Olympics and likely coached his last game for the U.S. national team. "Without the respect that my players had for these teams we could have been beaten."

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