This time, LeBron James and company made sure there was no controversial ending this time.

With their perfect 8-0 record, the U.S.A. won their second consecutive gold medal with a 107-100 victory over Spain. Much like the final game in 2008, this one wasn’t decided until the final minutes of the fourth quarter, as the Spaniards got to within six with about three minutes left.

Unwilling to let his team lose like so many times in this Olympics, James scored five points off a monsterous dunk and a dagger-like 3-pointer in the final 2:50 to essentially close out Spain’s chances. He would finish with 19 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals; he also did something that only Michael Jordan had done before – win a NBA MVP, NBA championship and a gold medal all in the same year.

In just his first Olympics, Kevin Durant once again led the team with 30 points and nine rebounds, making five 3-pointers in the process. He finished with the most points for a U.S. player in a single Olympics with 156, showcasing his impressive scoring prowess on an international stage. Throughout all of the team’s games, he made offense look easy, scoring from as far as 30 feet.

That’s not to say that Spain didn’t have their potential heroes in this one, however. Lakers forward Pau Gasol nearly willed his team to victory by himself, scoring 24 points, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out seven assists. FC Barcelona’s and former Memphis Grizzly Juan Carlos Navarro scored 21 points, and Gasol’s brother Marc shot 80% from the field and scored 17 points.

Unfortunately for the Spanish national team, it was just not enough once again. They used a 31-24 second quarter to pull within one at halftime, and the score stayed that way after a 24-all third quarter – a frame that had been the deciding factor in many of the U.S.’ victories.

As both teams fought back and forth in the fourth quarter, neither could pull away, and the six-point lead was the most that the Americans could keep, until James had his mini-outburst, putting the U.S. up 102-93 with under two minutes to play. Once the game went final, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” began playing over the stadium’s sound system, a fitting ending to one of the more exciting games of these 2o12 Olympic games.

Some eye-popping stats from the 2012 tournament:

• The Americans came in leading the tournament in several statistical categories, including:
• Points per game (115.5)
• 2-point and 3-point shooting percentage (60 and 44, respectively)
• Points off turnovers (198-77)
• Fast-break points (175-55)
• Total points (924; next closest was Argentina with 690)

While this tournament marked a huge milestone for U.S.A. basketball, the NBA has hinted that they might consider imposing an under-23 age limit for their Olympic representatives; if that came to fruition, just one player on this current roster, Anthony Davis, would be eligible by the 2016 Olympics. While the older players on the team, specifically Kobe Bryant, has expressed that this was his final Olympic run, most of the players on the roster don’t want an age limit. What do you think – should the NBA limit their players like this?

Since then, however, the team has become one of the best in Africa, as they have been able to recruit Nigerian-American college and professional athletes, including New Orleans’ Al-Farouq Aminu and 6’9” forward Ike Diogu, a top-10 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.

While Aminu is the only current NBA player on the roster, several others were drafted by NBA teams and either played in regular season games or participated in Summer League contests. All of Nigeria’s squad, however, has played collegiately in America before heading overseas to various international teams; they likely won’t be afraid of the USA.

This post isn’t to say that the USA squad should be overly worried about facing Nigeria, as the French team had five NBA players and still got throttled by 27 points. The main threats to the United States and the gold medal reside in Spain, Argentina, and maybe Brazil.

They can’t simply overlook teams, though. That was evident in Tuesday’s resounding 110-63 win over Tunisia, as they allowed 20-year old guard Makrem Ben Romdhane and his teammates to stay close for a large chunk of the first half. Tunisia had scored just 15 total first-half points against Nigeria in their first game; they scored that much in just the first quarter against the #1 ranked team in the world.

The extremely deep USA team eventually pulled away, but they showed a weakness from the three-point line and their starters – Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and Tyson Chandler – seemingly had no interest in playing cohesively. Their saving grace was the second-string squad coming in to put away the scrappy Tunisians.

If the US hopes to dispose of Nigeria quicker than they did Tunisia, they’ll need a consistent defensive effort on the perimeter and solid post defense from Love, Chandler, and Anthony Davis, as the Nigerians will likely rotate in four big men of 6’10”  and taller.

All in all, coach Mike Krzyzewski and his team shouldn’t be worried about losing tonight’s game. They can’t, however, go into this contest with the same lackadaisical play from Tuesday. Something tells me that Coach K won’t let that happen.