Leslie capped off her illustrious Olympic career with a fourth straight gold medal, scoring 14 points in a 92-65 victory against Australia on Saturday. She joined former teammate Teresa Edwards as the only basketball players ever to win four gold medals.
“It’s a blessing for me to be out on this floor, now participating in my fourth Olympics and walking away with a fourth gold medal,” Leslie said.
Russia took the bronze medal by beating host China 94-81 behind 22 points from American Becky Hammon.
The Aussies have now lost to the Americans in the gold medal game in the past three Olympics, with all three defeats coming by double-digit margins.
Australia figured this was its best shot to beat the U.S. Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips skipped the first half of the WNBA season so they could train for the Beijing Games, and Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the Olympic break so she could join her teammates.
Even with their extra training and Taylor returning to the starting lineup after missing the semifinals with a sprained right ankle, the Australians just couldn’t match the Americans’ depth.
“We’ve said from the first day that top to bottom we are a deep team,” said Kara Lawson, who led the U.S. with 15 points. “We just send wave after wave of players at you.”
Lawson was 5-for-5 from the field and helped the American reserves outscore Australia’s 59-11.
“We weren’t going to be the team to let Lisa lose,” said Candace Parker, who added 14 points. “We wouldn’t let her Olympic career end that way.”
Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, U.S. coach Anne Donovan inserted her second unit. The bench delivered, with Lawson scoring the first six points of a 12-2 run as the U.S. took a 22-15 lead.
Then Parker, who has had a relatively quiet tournament, took over. She scored eight of the Americans’ 10 points to open the second quarter, including two three-point plays. On her second, the 6-4 forward took the ball from the top of the key, dribbled through her legs and drove to the basket for a layup.
Lawson closed the half with five straight points to give the U.S. a 47-30 lead, capping the Americans’ most impressive half in Beijing. The U.S. shot 63 percent (19-for-30) and held the Aussies to just 22 percent (8-for-37).
Jackson tried her best to rally Australia in the third quarter, but the Aussies got no closer than 12 in the second half. Jackson finished with a game-high 20 points to lead Australia.
“You can’t shoot less than 40 percent and expect to win gold medals,” Australia coach Jan Stirling said after her team shot 19-for-76 (25 percent) from the field.
Leslie ended her Olympic career by fouling out with 6:33 left in the game. She left to a loud ovation from the crowd and hugged her teammates.
The U.S. has won 33 straight games in the Olympics with the last loss coming to the Unified team in the semifinals of the 1992 Barcelona Games.
