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Michelle Obama cheers on Team USA hoops win while Phelps, Lochte lose swim relay in London

BRAINS AND ‘BRON: First Lady Michelle Obama gets set to embrace Lebron James yesterday after Team USA’s opening win against the French squad in men’s basketball. (AP)

A-GOG: NBA star Tony Parker, hurt in the Drake club brawl, plays for home country France in goggles yesterday. (AFP/Getty Images)

She’s hooping it up as the first lady of hugs!

Michelle Obama happily heaped warm embraces on basketball’s Team USA yesterday after its tournament-opening spanking of France.

As the team broke a postgame huddle, LeBron James led his teammates in single file across the Olympic hardwood to the first lady’s front-row seat.

She leaned over and hugged every player who stepped forward, following Team USA’s 98-71 triumph.

“For her to be sitting there while we’re out there competing — not just for us, but for our country — for her to be there, we gave her a hug to thank her for coming,’’ Knick star Carmelo Anthony said.

“And she thanked us for going out there and doing what we’re doing for America.”

The first lady has been thoroughly embraced on this trip by American Olympians — even the jaded, multimillionaire stars who make up Team USA basketball.

President Obama and his wife recently attended a Team USA warm-up game in Washington, DC.

POST’S OLYMPIC COVERAGE

“That was great. We just saw her in DC and we knew that she was going to be here,” Brooklyn Net guard Deron Williams said.

The first lady is no stranger to the hardwood. Her hubby is America’s highest-ranking hoops fan and her brother, Craig Robinson, is the head basketball coach at Oregon State.

Anthony said the first lady’s presence and congratulatory embrace will be a cherished memory of London 2012.

“It was a very special moment,” the Knicks’ scoring machine said.

The outmatched French players stayed close to Team USA for a quarter, thanks largely to San Antonio Spur guard Tony Parker, who scored 10 points.

The former Mr. Eva Longoria took the floor in a new pair of protective glasses.

He’s under doctors orders to wear the funky goggles after taking a piece of glass in the left eye as an innocent bystander to the wild brawl between Drake and Chris Brown’s flunkies at club W.i.P. last month in New York.

“I’m getting used to them. I’ve been playing with them [in exhibition games and practice] for a while,” Parker said.

“I feel fine. I think I’ll get better and better as the competition goes on.’

Anthony was just happy to see his NBA pal: “It was good to see him out on the court. We saw him the other day [in the village]. It’s good to see him back out there.’’

If France was smarting from the hoops beating, it later got revenge in the pool.

France outswam America’s best — including Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte — in one of the most thrilling 4×100-meter freestyle relay races in Olympic Games history.

Phelps handed Lochte the lead for the final leg, but Yannick Agnel sailed by the American to bring the gold home to France.

Phelps did what he could, turning in a better time than Lochte — 47.15 seconds to 47.74 seconds.

It was a reversal from four years ago in Beijing, when the Americans snatched 4×100 gold from France in the final seconds.

Only 24 hours earlier, Lochte was the toast of London, winning gold in the 400-meter individual medley as fourth-place Phelps failed to get a medal.

Lochte’s face was splashed across the globe yesterday — smiling with a blinged-out red, white and blue tooth grill.

Just before he took the medal stand Saturday night, an IOC official told Lochte he couldn’t wear the patriotic mouthpiece.

He obliged, took the gold medal and then popped in his jewel-encrusted grill for post-ceremony pictures.

Yesterday’s swimming action had one golden moment for Team USA: Dana Vollmer set a world record in the women’s 100-meter butterfly. The University of California alum put on an incredible final kick and finished in an all-time best time of 55.98 seconds.

“I’m on top of the world right now.” she said. “I still know I can go faster.”

America celebrated another record-busting lady yesterday, as Kimberly Rhode won gold for women’s skeet shooting.

She became the first American to win an individual medal in five consecutive Olympic Games.

With Mark Cannizzaro in London and Wire Services