A Sports Filled Weekend

In the last of the major events at the 2016 Rio Olympics on Sunday, the United States’ men’s basketball team put together exactly the sort of performance to close an engaging show.

The U.S. won its third consecutive gold medal, thrashing Serbia 96-66. That marked the end of Mike Kyrzezewski’s tenure as coach as he will hand off now to Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs for the 2020 Games in Japan.

Kevin Durant scored 30 points to lead the Americans to their 24th consecutive victory in Olympic play.

That gave the U.S. the championships in basketball for both men and women. The women pounded Spain 101-72 on Saturday for their 49th consecutive Olympic victory. Diana Taurasi and Lindsay Whalen each scored 17 points.

The United States won 121 medals at these games, including 46 golds, far outstripping second-place Great Britain (67 total, 27 gold).

Stars were too numerous to count and, at the risk of leaving a few out, we’ll at least mention Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, the U.S. gymnasts led by Simone Biles and Aly Raisman and the incredible speedsters Usain Bolt and Allyson Felix.

Elsewhere
The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 2-1 on Sunday to win their eighth straight game and tighten the wild-card playoff race in the American League. They’re now 3 ½ games behind the Baltimore Orioles. … Kevin Harvick won NASCAR’s rain-delayed race at Bristol Motor Speedway, picking up his second victory of the season. Harvick finished 1.933 seconds ahead of Rickey Stenhouse Jr. … Si Woo Kim tied the tournament record with a 21-under 259 to win the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was his first victory on the PGA Tour. He topped Luke Donald by five strokes.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman