I stayed up and watched my team defeat Spain 118 – 107 to win the gold medal in basketball early this morning. It was truly an exciting game, the first one to go all the way down to the wire for Team USA.

Kobe and D-Wade were the standout players, but how about that magnificent performance by Juan Carlos Navarro? He must have dropped at least 200 runners. Spain played very well and that’s an understatement. For some reason, U.S. defenders just couldn’t keep Marc Gasol off the paint.

I don’t know if U.S. would’ve won without Kobe’s 4th Quarter showdown, where he got Rudy Fernandez into foul trouble on a long three that turned it into a 4-point play to extend the lead to 102 – 92 with just 3 minutes to go.

That said, this was the most fascinating play from the game.