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 U.S. team opened the Paris Games with a near-perfect performance as the U.S. defeated Serbia 110-84 on Sunday.
Durant came off the bench to hit his first eight shots en route to 23 points in less than 17 minutes, with James adding 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. They combined to shoot 18 of 22 from the field — 8 of 9 for Durant, 9 of 13 for James — as the U.S. had no trouble keeping up 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 U.S.
“That’s the best game we’ve played so far,” James said after the Americans improved their record to 6-0 this summer, including 1-0 in the tournament that matters.
Durant has missed most of Team USA’s preparation for the Olympics with a calf injury, and Sunday marked the first time he’s stepped onto the court this summer. And he was the fifth substitute off the U.S. bench, effectively the 10th man, in only the fourth time in his last 1,320 games that he hasn’t started.
But once on the court, Durant was back to his old self, firing shots from every angle.
Durant was the star on the court, but Joel Embiid felt the pressure from the French fans whether he stepped onto the court or not.
The Sixers center opted to play for the U.S. over France at the Paris Games — and the home crowd didn’t let him forget it. Embiid was greeted with boos throughout the opening game, whether it was during pregame introductions, when he came off the bench or even touched the ball.
There was some hope from French fans that Embiid would team up with NBA colleagues Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert to play for the host country. The Sixers center was granted naturalization status in 2022, despite never having lived in France. He also had the option to play for Cameroon, but turned that possibility down early in the qualification process, leaving the U.S., where he also obtained a U.S. passport in 2022.
Embiid had previously said he wanted to play for Team USA because his son was born there, but that didn’t matter to the few French fans in the arena on Sunday.
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Serbia was led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, who scored 20 points for Serbia, while Bogdan Bogdanović scored 14.
Before the tournament began, Serbian coach Svetislav Pešić – who coached the 1992 U.S. Dream Team – said this version of the U.S. squad is even better than the first NBA-star-studded roster that took the world by storm at the Barcelona Games.
“Very, very important to start this tournament well, because every game is so important,” Curry said after his Olympic debut. “You only have six if you want to win gold and Serbia is obviously a great team. They have a complicated offense and a very physical defense. KD was incredible in the first half and gave us a huge boost, and our defense in the second half opened the game.”