Kevin Durant’s return powers U.S. men to opening win over Serbia

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France – Three weeks ago, Kevin Durant slumped by himself in the corner of UNLV’s gym with his hooded sweatshirt pulled tight over his head. The 35-year-old star had missed USA Basketball’s first training camp that day with a calf injury that hadn’t yet been disclosed to the media, and he looked frustrated in his self-imposed detention.

As LeBron James and Stephen Curry stole the headlines throughout the U.S. team’s run up to the Paris Olympics, Durant was listed as day-to-day but kept missing games. The three-time gold medalist never appeared in any of the Americans’ five exhibition games, not even when they endured close calls with Australia, South Sudan and Germany.

But Durant’s long-awaited return to the court came in triumphant fashion Sunday, when he scored a game-high 23 points and made his first eight shots in the Americans’ 110-84 victory over Serbia in its Olympics opener. The victory over Nikola Jokić and the Serbians, who are among the medal favorites, puts the United States on the fast track to the quarterfinals, as their remaining Group C games will be against South Sudan and Puerto Rico, who both rank outside the top 15 in the FIBA World Rankings.

“For sure (I was worried about missing the Olympics), when you’re going through a rehab, and especially when you want it to happen pretty quickly,” Durant said. “We have a short amount of time together. There were good days and little setbacks. I was nervous a little bit, but the trainers calmed me down a lot and let me know what I was going through.”

U.S. coach Steve Kerr elected to bring Durant off the bench rather than use him in the starting lineup during his first game action since his Phoenix Suns were swept out of the first round of the playoffs in April. Durant promptly sank his first shot attempt – a 3-pointer from the right angle – and proceeded to go 8 for 8 from the field, including 5 for 5 from beyond the arc, in the first half. He led all scorers at the break with 21 points, and he helped the Americans erase an early 10-2 deficit to take a 58-49 halftime lead.

“I’ve (come off the bench) three times in the NBA,” Durant said. “That’s enough for me to lean on those times. That’s what I thought about when I was coming in: staying ready, mentally staying focused on the game plan and when I come in there, don’t make the game about myself. Just add to the team. The beauty of tonight is, we played a lot of random basketball on the offensive side and defensively we were talking to one another throughout the whole game. That communication and random basketball made us tough to stop.”

Indeed, Durant’s return brought better flow and spacing to a U.S. offense that struggled with turnovers and stilted play throughout its exhibition slate. James added 21 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in the victory, receiving loud ovations from the international crowd with each successive dunk and driving finish. To accommodate Durant, Kerr removed Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum from his rotation for the first time this summer.

“It’s really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys,” Kerr said. “With Kevin coming back, I went to the combinations I felt would make the most sense. It seems crazy (not to play Tatum). I talked to him and he was incredibly professional. That was tonight. That doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way the rest of the tournament.”

After the Americans dismantled the Serbians 105-79 in a July 17 exhibition, Sunday’s contest was a much more intense affair. The Serbian fans among the crowd of 27,000 fans left a big imprint on their highly-anticipated opener against the United States, shooting off air horns during live action and loudly chanting “MVP” for Jokić, who finished with a team-high 20 points to go with five rebounds and eight assists.

Meanwhile, U.S. center Joel Embiid heard loud boos throughout the night, presumably from French fans disappointed he decided to play for the U.S. instead of France, where he also holds citizenship. Embiid struggled in his Olympic debut, tallying four points and two rebounds in 11 minutes while getting pulled from the court during his first rotation less than three minutes into the game. The 2023 NBA MVP also committed an unsportsmanlike foul in the third quarter, and the Americans were minus-eight with him on the court and plus-34 when he was on the bench.

For the United States, which knew its biggest test of the opening round would come in its first game, the blowout victory should provide the chance to breathe a sigh of relief. Through its first two days, the men’s basketball tournament has been dominated by favored teams and has featured relatively few surprises. That’s good news for James, Curry, Durant and company, who are hoping to capture the United States’ fifth consecutive gold medal in Paris on Aug. 10.

“That was the best game we’ve played so far,” James said. “(Serbia) tested us early and we got our composure. (The atmosphere) was phenomenal. Sitting there listening to our national anthem and listening to the fans cheer, I definitely got nervous and the butterflies came out. Even for me who has played in front of a lot of people, it was a different atmosphere. But we were able to get to it.”