Team USA men's basketball kicked off their gold medal defense on Sunday with a 110-84 win over Serbia and three-time champion Nikola Jokic. The game went about as expected. The U.S. side got off to a slow start but quickly dominated once they got rolling. Kevin Durant was lights-out in his Paris Olympics debut and LeBron James reminded everybody, again, that he is still Team USA's best player at 39 years old.
There was one big surprise to come out of the contest, though— Jayson Tatum received zero playing time. The Boston Celtics superstar did not spend a single second on the court, not even in the final few minutes of a blowout victory. It's shocking given Tatum is coming off the best season of his career that ended in his first NBA title and played a fairly large role in securing Team USA's gold medal in Tokyo three years ago.
