Olympics: US wins gold, beats Spain 107-100 in men's hoops

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This was no Dream Team. This was reality.

The gold medal was in doubt for the U.S. men's basketball team.

The Americans led Spain by only one point after three quarters, a back-and-forth, impossible-to-turn-away-from game that almost anyone would hope for in an Olympic final.

Especially, it turns out, the U.S. players.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We didn't want it easy," LeBron James said. "A lot of teams have won gold easy. We didn't want it that way. We're a competitive team, and we love when it gets tight. That's when our will and determination kind of shows. It was the same way in '08."

Same result, too.

The Americans defended their title Sunday by fighting off another huge challenge from Spain, pulling away in the final minutes for a 107-100 victory and their second straight Olympic championship.

The Americans, who insisted they were better than their 2008 version and even good enough to take a game from the 1992 Dream Team, may not have been at that level.

Still, they were better again than Spain - though not by much.

Yes, they were Olympic superheroes again, but they had to fight until the finish.

Pau Gasol scored 24 points and Juan Carlos Navarro had 21 for Spain, which was again just a few minutes from its first basketball gold but couldn't finish the job against the Americans.

The U.S. came in averaging nearly 117 points and stomping on their competition with such ease that even the Olympics' own daily preview had a hard time envisioning intrigue, writing that it would "likely take a great game from Spain and an off-day from the USA to cause an upset."

Well, Spain brought the great game and trailed by only a point heading into the fourth quarter.

But the Spanish somehow lost sight of James, and the game's best player drove uncontested and threw it down for a 99-91 lead with 2:48 left. After Marc Gasol dunked, James dribbled outside the circle with Marc Gasol giving him just a bit too much room, and James pulled up for the 3 that made it 102-93 with 1:59 to play.