Kevin Durant led the United States its first world basketball title since 1994 when he lit up Turkey to guide his team to an 81-64 win in the gold medal match played in Turkey.

Having scored 38 points in the semi-final win over Lithuania, he added 28 more against Turkey to repay coach Mike Krzyzewski's faith in him.

With the Sinan Erden Arena reminding the Americans just where the final was being played, Toronto Raptor Hidayet Turkoglu was doing all he could to further unnerve the Americans, proving a handful early on with eight quick points.

However, when he left the court with a knee injury, Turkey found the going somewhat more difficult, down 22-17 at the end of the opening quarter.

It looked like the Turkish coaching staff had failed to do their research on how to shut down Durant who was at his outstanding best early, recording 11 points in the first quarter.

Turkoglu returned to the court in the second quarter, brandishing a knee brace on his right leg.

His movement was visibly affected and with Durant continuing to light up at the other end, Turkoglu could no longer do the same for his team.

Durant led all scorers at half-time with 20 points, 15 of which would come from behind the perimeter where he landed five from nine three-pointers.

His radar was on again at the beginning of the second-half, opening the scoring with a further two three-pointers, seeing the lead go out to 16 enabling the US to cruise to victory. AP