MADRID — With golden confetti raining on their heads and “Party in the U.S.A.” ringing in their ears, it must have been hard for the U.S. basketball players to hear anything.

They had stopped listening long ago.

All the questions about their talent were put down as easily as their opponents. Kyrie Irving made all six of his 3-point attempts and scored 26 points, and the U.S. repeated as world champion for the first time by crushing Serbia 129-92 on Sunday in the Basketball World Cup.

“It kind of was, again, a smack to our face, saying the U.S. was sending the B-team to go play in the World Cup,” forward Kenneth Faried said. “Just because LeBron’s not here, Kobe’s not here, (Kevin) Durant’s not here, doesn’t mean anything. We can step up and win the gold, too. That’s what we did tonight.”

And just like every other game, the Americans did it easily.

James Harden added 23 points for the Americans, who made 11 of 16 3-pointers in a sensational-shooting first half, adding one final romp to a tournament full of them.

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This depleted team that was supposedly weak enough to lose was too good to be touched.

“Obviously we didn’t have a very close game all tournament, but for that to happen we had to play hard for 40 minutes and not relax and not give any inch while we were out there,” guard Stephen Curry said.

The Americans came in winning by 32.5 points per game and their closest victory in the tournament was by 21 points over Turkey.

They thought they would get a tough game Sunday, but were simply too good to let that happen.

They finished at 58 percent from the field. They made 15 of 30 3-point attempts and had eight of their 12 players score in double figures.

The Americans have won 63 straight games.


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