VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — By the end of the U.S. Olympic opener, Kevin Durant made it clear he was healthy, making the tournament’s most dangerous team even stronger.
Durant surpassed even the lofty Olympic standards by scoring 21 points in the first half and 23 points total, making his first eight shots, in the USA’s 110-84 win over Serbia on Sunday. LeBron James also added 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. The USA made 18 three-point field goals in the 40 minutes of action.
The highly-anticipated American stars played their best team game of the summer, with James continuing to play far beyond his years and raining 3-pointers on the Serbian players.
Of course, Durant has been great for the U.S. in the past. He is the team’s all-time leading scorer and is looking to win a record fourth Olympic gold medal in men’s basketball. In fact, his last appearance for the U.S. was in the gold medal game in Tokyo, where he scored 29 points to lead the U.S. to a narrow victory over France.
That’s why his performance on Sunday in front of a packed Stade Pierre Mauroy soccer stadium outside Lille, France, was so special. He hasn’t played for the U.S. since a calf injury forced him to miss all of this summer’s preseason matches.
“I was tired, I’m not going to lie,” said Durant, who made 8 of 9 shots, five 3-pointers and had two rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench. “My lungs were getting used to the intensity of the game, but I was glad I was able to make shots.”
Durant has only come off the bench three times in his illustrious NBA career.
Kevin Durant took zero shots in the first half.
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Carmelo Anthony’s U.S. Olympic record 37 points seemed in serious jeopardy at halftime, but the U.S. outscored Serbia in the second half so thoroughly that coach Steve Kerr didn’t need to ask for much more from Durant. He missed his only shot of the second half, but frankly, it was a completely wide-open chance that he should have made.
But Durant had already done enough, making shots in a tense first half that saw Serbia jump out to an eight-point lead early on, rally in the second quarter and tie the game.
“We wanted to limit his minutes and bring him back gradually, so I brought him back gradually,” Kerr said. “He didn’t try to come back gradually. He’s been great.”
James, meanwhile, is 39 and the second-oldest player in the tournament. There’s almost no way to explain his intensity and attitude on Sunday other than that he’s taking his co-captaincy and winning a third gold medal seriously.
James dunked in crowds, showed off his muscles and yelled at the Serbian bench and his teammates. He already was the all-time leader in assists in American history and played the point-forward role Kerr gave him with ease. He ended the first quarter with an alley-oop to Anthony Edwards, connected with Durant at the half’s buzzer, hit a perfect shot on Durant and then drilled an equally perfect fadeaway jumper for a 58-49 lead.
Don’t get in his way!!
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“Coach Kerr drew up a great play for us, and we’ve got smart guys, so we were able to execute it without even practicing it,” James said. “It started with a great lip screen from Steph. I saw KD coming out, so I tried to throw it before he could catch it, and he hit a fadeaway. … It was awesome.”
The Olympic opening game has at times been a spectacular display of America’s newfound strength. Sure, the U.S. team has won four straight gold medals, but their previous international competitions haven’t gone so well: The U.S. finished fourth at last summer’s World Cup, while Serbia was runner-up.
Curry, 36, and Edwards, 22, each scored 11 points in their Olympic debuts. Jrue Holiday, a repeat gold medalist from the previous tournament, scored 15 points with three 3-pointers, and Devin Booker, another gold medalist from the Tokyo Games, added 12 points.
As a team, the U.S. is shooting 62 percent from the field and 56 percent from three-point range, and if they can match that offensive prowess with a little defense, this team is unbeatable.
“That was the best game I’ve ever played,” James said.
Going deeper
On Team USA, Kevin Durant is a mentor to Anthony Edwards, just like Kobe was before him.
Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic had 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds for Serbia. The U.S. rotated Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo to keep Jokic in check. Bogdan Bogdanovic contributed 14 points for Serbia, which has suffered two blowout losses to the U.S. this summer. The U.S. swept Serbia in a friendly in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.
Serbia started the game with relentless ball pressure and all-out aggression that the U.S. was either not prepared for or chose to allow for a few minutes. It was 10-2 when Kerr took a timeout with 7:19 left in the first quarter and 19-14 when Durant finally got in the mix and made his first two jump shots, both 3-pointers.
The first few minutes were marred by sloppy defense and turnovers, even allowing Curry to make a backdoor cut for a layup — the kind of thing Kerr has been warning his team about since arriving in France after the exhibition season. When Kerr took a timeout early in the first quarter, he seemed to let his players know that enough was enough.
“I don’t remember exactly what we said, but I remember the back cut came up,” Kerr said. “I think it was Steph who gave up the back cut, so I mentioned it. But the thing about this team is we have depth and we’re going to play 40 minutes and we’re going to score. I think part of the message was to stay calm and be OK, but we got to a different level than what we saw. I mean, that was pretty clear.”
“This was a different level of defensive intensity than the five friendlies we’ve played so far and that’s what we need.”
Embiid also made his Olympic debut, but it didn’t go well. The former NBA MVP chose to play for the U.S. instead of France in the Olympics. He holds dual citizenship but had expressed a preference to play for France before joining the U.S. team last fall.
Embiid was booed every time he touched the ball and finished with just four points on 2-of-5 shooting in 11 minutes of play.
Kerr ditched the exhibition-season routine of using five substitutes at a time, and after Embiid struggled early, Kerr quickly deployed Davis (7 points, 8 rebounds) along with the other starters.
Going deeper
‘We need him there’: Why Team USA is waiting for Kevin Durant to make Olympic debut
Durant’s return to the starting lineup means that, for at least the first game, three-time All-NBA first-team selection Jayson Tatum will be sidelined. Tatum averaged 6.4 points and shot 47 percent from the field during the exhibition season. Booker remained in Kerr’s starting lineup, but it’s unclear how long that will last.
“It’s really hard to use more than 10 guys in a 40-minute game, and with Kevin back, I just went with the combination that I felt made the most sense,” Kerr said. “I think it’s crazy. I looked at it all and I thought I was crazy when I decided this was the lineup I was going to go with. Jason has been named to the All-NBA first team three years in a row and is one of the best players in the world.
“So I picked a matchup that made sense to me and I’ve spoken to him about it. He’s incredibly professional, and that’s what he was tonight. But that doesn’t mean that he’ll be that way the rest of the tournament, so he’s going to make his mark.”
The U.S. team’s next game will be on Wednesday at 3:00 PM ET against South Sudan, which beat Puerto Rico on Sunday.
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(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
