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LILLE, France — The Slim Reaper is back. Kevin Durant, already the United States’ leading Olympic scorer, added to his international legend Sunday night. Durant scored 21 points in the first half to help the United States hold off a frenetic Serbian offense and cruise to a 110-84 victory in its first game of the 2024 Olympics.
Durant missed Team USA’s entire Olympic exhibition and it now seems no coincidence that they struggled mightily in those five games. His late-first-quarter appearance was timely, helping to calm down an American team that initially struggled to contain the Serbian attack led by three-time NBA MVP and reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokić.
For a team loaded with its own NBA MVPs and champions, the United States looked awfully flummoxed early in the first quarter of its first Olympic game. Coach Steve Kerr brought out a starting lineup consisting of LeBron James, Steph Curry, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid and Jrue Holiday, and that esteemed team almost immediately ran into trouble.
Curry, making his Olympic debut, was given the honor of leading the Americans onto the court for warmups, but his first pass as an Olympian ended up in the hands of Serbian Aleksa Abramovic, who took it the other way for the match’s first points.
Embiid seemed out of rhythm for most of the game, missing free throws, drawing easy fouls and getting harassed on blocks. Maybe it was nerves, or maybe it was the incessant cascade of boos and whistles that accompanied every shot, touch or appearance on air screens. French basketball fans, it seems, are not yet ready to forgive Embiid for the crime of choosing to play for the United States instead of France.
Kerr had said before the game that he wanted the U.S. to play a faster offense, to protect itself from international teams that stay in the paint. It was a good idea, except that Serbia decided to play an even faster style of basketball, which confused the U.S. and led to bad passes and easy turnovers during the first half.
LeBron James, who had just finished his time leading the United States at the Seine, scored his team’s first points with a dunk on a breakaway. But the real hero of the first half was Durant, who drove to the basket with 2:33 left and hit his first three-point shot just 14 seconds later.
Durant’s first stretch lasted just over six minutes total between the first and second quarters, but he scored a game-changing 14 points — twice as many as any other player on either team when he left the court. He finished the first half with five points in the final 36 seconds, including a jump shot as time expired that left him flat on his back with the U.S. up 58-49.
The second half was sloppy (Embiid, James and Booker all put Serbian defenders on their backs at one point or another), but also inevitable as the U.S. continued to extend its lead and hold off a frenetic Serbian team.
The game’s defining moment came when James made a layup to give the U.S. a 14-point lead and ended up falling to the floor with Serbia’s Nicola Jovic on top of him. James simply shrugged Jovic off of him, jumped to his feet and flexed in front of the Serbia bench as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and Team USA’s leader ran the game.
Durant led all scorers with 23 points and, when he left the game with 5:33 left, he received a respectful salute from the crowd. James finished with 21 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds in a dominant all-around performance. Jokić led Serbia with 20 points and 8 assists.
Every player on the U.S. team except Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum got minutes and points. Anthony Edwards, in particular, brought the fire. He spent much of the game warring with a fan blowing the horn behind the U.S. bench, glaring at him after hitting a three-pointer, and later executing a clever spin move that left the Serbian defense cornered.
The U.S. will play South Sudan on Wednesday, a team that gave them some unexpected trouble during the exhibition game. But this time, the Americans should have KD in the lineup, and that alone could make the difference.
