LeBron James made his Olympic return after a 12-year absence. Kevin Durant played for the first time this summer. And the two most-experienced Olympians on this US team opened the Paris Games with a near-perfect showing as the US rolled to a 110-84 win over Serbia on Sunday.
Durant came off the bench to hit his first eight shots on the way to 23 points in fewer than 17 minutes, with James adding 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. They were a combined 18 for 22 from the field – 8 of 9 for Durant, 9 of 13 for James – as the US had no trouble with the reigning World Cup silver medalists. Jrue Holiday scored 15, Devin Booker had 12 and Anthony Edwards and Stephen Curry each added 11 for the US.
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Durant missed the bulk of Team USA’s pre-Olympic prep as he nursed a calf injury, with Sunday marking the first time he has stepped foot on the court this summer. And he was the fifth sub off the US bench, essentially the 10th man, in what was only the fourth time in his last 1,320 games that he did not start.
But once on the court, Durant was his typical self, raining shots from all angles.
Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić scored 20 points for Serbia, while Bogdan Bogdanović scored 14.
Before the tournament started, Serbia coach Svetislav Pešić – who coached against the 1992 Olympic Dream Team from the US – said this version of the American squad is even better than that first NBA-star-filled bunch that took the world by storm at the Barcelona Games. And when told of that comment a couple of weeks back, US coach Steve Kerr laughed it off.
“When Chuck Daly coached the Dream Team, he never called timeout,” Kerr said.
It took all of three minutes of these Olympics for Kerr to call one. Serbia jumped out to a 10-2 lead, putting the Americans into a quick hole. Kerr subbed Joel Embiid out for Anthony Davis after that first stoppage and things changed in a hurry; a three-point play by James midway through the first gave the US their first lead and a lob from James to Edwards put the Americans up 25-20 after one.
By then, the Durant show was under way. He finished his 8-for-8 first-half showing with a fadeaway, falling to the court, that beat the half-time buzzer for a 58-49 lead. And the lead steadily grew from there: Edwards shook free of Serbia’s Nikola Jović for a nifty baseline score to make it 84-65 after three, a play so good that Curry was dancing in delight and mimicking using a video-game controller on the sideline.
The US men’s team are looking for their fifth-consecutive Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games. They return to action on Tuesday, taking on upstart South Sudan, a rematch of a 101-100 escape win for the US in an exhibition in London earlier this month.
Serbia will meet Puerto Rico on the same day in what could be an elimination game for both teams.
The Guardian
