On Friday, LeBron James will carry the U.S. flag. But first, he carried the U.S. men’s basketball team.
Again.
James scored the final 11 points for the Americans down the stretch, and the four-time reigning Olympic gold medalists held off World Cup champion Germany 92-88 in London on Monday night in their final tune-up before the Paris Games start later this week.
Announced earlier in the day as the male flagbearer for the Americans in Friday night’s opening ceremony down the River Seine — the female flagbearer will be revealed Tuesday — James came through time and time again down the stretch, just as he did over the weekend when his layup with 8 seconds left gave the U.S. a 101-100 win over upstart South Sudan.
James had 20 points for the U.S., while Joel Embiid scored 15, Stephen Curry had 13 and Anthony Edwards finished with 11.
Franz Wagner led Germany with 18 points. Andreas Obst — the hero of last year’s German win over the U.S. in the World Cup semifinals — had 14, while Dennis Schroder had a 13-point, 10-assist night. Daniel Theis added 13 for Germany and Moritz Wagner scored 12.
The Americans finished their exhibition slate 5-0, but there was only one game that was a true cakewalk. That was against Serbia, the team that’ll face the U.S. on Sunday in the first Olympic game this summer for both teams.
Canada gave the U.S. issues at times, Australia came from way back to make things interesting at the end, South Sudan nearly pulled off an upset as a 43.5-point underdog and the Germans had the lead over the U.S. with 4 minutes left on Monday.
Then it was James’ time. He outscored Germany 11-6 by himself in the final 3:57.
And now, Paris awaits. The games start for real this weekend.
