LeBron James carries US past Germany in final warm-up game before Olympics

LeBron James will carry the American flag on Friday. But first, he carried the U.S. men’s basketball team. Again.

James scored the final 11 points for the Americans in the closing stages and the four-time reigning Olympic gold medalists defeated world champions Germany 92-88 in London on Monday night in their final practice match before the Games in Paris begin later this week.

James was announced earlier in the day as the U.S. male flag bearer at Friday night’s opening ceremony on the Seine River. The female flag bearer will be announced Tuesday. He has been successful in the closing stages time and time again, including last weekend when his layup with 8 seconds left gave the U.S. a 101-100 victory over surging South Sudan.

James scored 20 points for the US, while Joel Embiid scored 15, Stephen Curry had 13 and Anthony Edwards scored 11.

Franz Wagner led Germany with 18 points. Andreas Obst – the MVP of Germany’s win over the US in last year’s World Cup semifinal – had 14, while Dennis Schroder had a night of 13 points and 10 assists. Daniel Theis added 13 for Germany and Moritz Wagner scored 12.

The U.S. finished its exhibition game 5-0, but only one game was a breeze. It was against Serbia, the team that will face the U.S. on Sunday in the first Olympic game of the summer for both teams.

Canada occasionally caused problems for the US, Australia came back from a big deficit but made it exciting at the end, South Sudan almost caused a surprise as a big underdog and the Germans had a lead over the US with four minutes to go on Monday.

Then it was James’ time. He single-handedly defeated Germany 11-6 in the last 3:57.

And now Paris awaits. The games really begin this weekend.