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 assists and seven rebounds. 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.
“That’s the best game we’ve played so far,” James said after the Americans improved to 6-0 this summer, 1-0 in the tournament that matters.
