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.
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.
21 POINT PERFECT FIRST HALF FROM KEVIN DURANT!!!! 🍃 pic.twitter.com/afOlMQQOBz
— 𝐇𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 ✰ (@Hatedzs) July 28, 2024
Durant was the star on the court, but Joel Embiid felt the heat of French fans whether he stepped on the floor or not.
The Sixers center chose to play for the US over France at the Paris Games – and the home crowd did not let him forget it. Embiid was met with boos throughout the opening game, be it during pregame introductions, coming off the bench, or touching the ball.
There was some hope from French fans that Embiid would team up with fellow NBA stars Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert to play for the host country. The Sixers center was naturalized citizenship status in 2022 even though he’s never lived in France. He also had the option of playing for Cameroon, but turned down that opportunity early during the qualification process. That left the US, where he also received a US passport in 2022.
Embiid has previously said he wanted to play for Team USA because his son was born there, but none of that mattered to the smattering of French fans in the arena on Sunday.
Serbia were led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, who 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 roster that took the world by storm at the Barcelona Games.
“Very, very important to get off to a good start in this tournament because every game is so big,” Curry said after his Olympic debut. “You only have six of them if you want to get to the gold and obviously, Serbia is a great team. They run an intricate offense and a very physical defense. KD was unbelievable in the first half and gave us a huge boost, and our defense in the second half opened the game up.”
