Kevin Durant, LeBron James dominate as USA beat Serbia 110-84 in Paris Olympics opener

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Kevin Durant, LeBron James dominate as USA beat Serbia 110-84 in Paris Olympics opener

LeBron James felt a little nervous, excited, even a little anxious when hearing the national anthem played before his first Olympics in 12 years.

Everything passed quickly.

James and Kevin Durant — the two most experienced Olympians on this U.S. team — opened the Paris Olympics and a near-perfect performance by the United States in its bid for a fifth straight gold medal. Durant made his first eight shots and scored 23 points, James added 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds and the United States cruised to a 110-84 win over Serbia in the opening Olympic game for both teams on Sunday.

“That was the best game we’ve ever played so far,” James said after the U.S. team improved to 6-0 this summer, 1-0 in this important tournament.

James and Durant combined to make 18 of 22 shots — 8 of 9 for Durant, 9 of 13 for James — as the U.S. team had no trouble against last summer’s World Cup silver medalists in the Philippines. Jrue Day scored 15 points, Devin Booker had 12 points and Anthony Edwards and Stephen Curry each added 11 points for the U.S.

“No matter what happens,” James said. “Every day it’s going to be a different person. And we have that kind of firepower.”

The United States improved its overall record to 144-6 in the Olympic tournament, 56-0 when scoring more than 100 points. The Americans won without Jayson Tatum of NBA champions Boston Celtics — who had just agreed to the biggest contract in NBA history — in the rotation, something that even USA coach Steve Kerr thought was crazy to do.

“I went with the combinations that I felt made sense,” Kerr said. “I talked to him and he was extremely professional. And that was tonight. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be that way for the rest of the tournament. He’s going to leave his mark. Our guys know this: The key to this whole thing is to put all the NBA stuff in the rearview mirror and just win six games. Jayson is a top professional, a champion, he’s handled it well and he’ll be ready for the next game.”

Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic scored 20 points for Serbia, while Bogdan Bogdanovic added 14. Serbia was outscored 54-27 from the 3-point line — a major weakness for the Americans in pre-tournament games but a strength on Sunday — and allowed the Americans to shoot 62 percent while shooting just 42 percent from the line.

With Jokic on the court for 31 minutes, the teams were tied. In the nine minutes Jokic was off the court, the United States outscored Serbia by 26 points. Final margin: 26 points.

“They have the best player in the world,” said Edwards.

Both teams will return to action on Wednesday, with the United States taking on Emerging South Sudan — a rematch of a Win escape 101-100 for the U.S. team in an exhibition in London earlier this month — and Serbia meets Puerto Rico in what could be a knockout match for both teams.

At first it was Serbia 10, US 2. Then it was US 108, Serbia 74.

“We knew they were going to come out and play hard,” Booker said. “They did the same thing when we were in Abu Dhabi. They have a lot of talented guys there. We’re not underestimating them.”

Before the tournament began, Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic—who coached against the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team” from the United States—said that this version of the American squad was even better than the first NBA all-star group that took the world by storm at the Barcelona Olympics. And when told about that comment a few weeks ago, Kerr laughed it off.

“When Chuck Daly coached the Dream Team, he never called for a pause,” Kerr said.

It took Kerr 2 minutes, 41 seconds of this Olympics to call one. Serbia had jumped out to an eight-point lead, putting the Americans in a difficult position quickly. Kerr replaced Anthony Davis with Joel Embiid after the first stoppage, and things changed quickly; a James three-pointer midway through the first quarter gave the U.S. its first lead, and a James-to-Edwards pass gave the Americans a 25-20 lead after one quarter.

Theretofore, Durant Program in progress.

He capped off an 8-for-8 first-half performance with a fadeaway, falling to the floor, beating the halftime buzzer for a 58-49 lead. And the lead just kept growing from there: Edwards broke free of Serbia’s Nikola Jovic for a stunning baseline layup that made it 84-65 after three, a play so good that Curry danced with joy and mimicked it on a video game controller on the sidelines.

“It’s very, very important to get off to a good start in this tournament because every game is so important,” Curry said after his Olympic debut. “You only have six games if you want to win a gold medal and obviously, Serbia is a great team. They have a complex offense and a very strong defense. KD played unbelievable in the first half and gave us a big boost, and our defense in the second half opened up the game.”

According to The Associated Press.

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