US men’s basketball team rolls past Serbia 110-84

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP):

LeBron James was feeling some nervousness, some butterflies, maybe even a bit of angst as he listened to the National Anthem play before his first Olympic game in 12 years.

It all went away quickly.

James and Kevin Durant – the two most-experienced Olympians on this American team – opened the Paris Games and a US bid for a fifth consecutive gold medal with a near-perfect show. Durant made his first eight shots and scored 23 points, James added 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, and the US rolled to a 110-84 win over Serbia in the Olympic opener for both teams yesterday.

“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.

James and Durant were a combined 18 for 22 from the field – eight of nine for Durant, nine of 13 for James – as the US had no trouble with the reigning World Cup silver medallists from last summer in the Philippines. Jrue Holiday scored 15, Devin Booker had 12, and Anthony Edwards and Stephen Curry each added 11 for the US.

“Whatever it takes,” James said. “It’s going to be somebody different every day. And we have that type of firepower.”

The US improved to 144-6 overall in Olympic play, 56-0 when scoring more than 100 points. The Americans won without Jayson Tatum of the NBA champion Boston Celtics – someone who just agreed to the richest contract in NBA history – in the rotation, which even US coach Steve Kerr thought was crazy when he decided to do it.

“I went with the combinations that I felt like would make sense,” Kerr said. “I talked to him, and he’s incredibly professional. And that’s tonight. It doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way the rest of the tournament. He’ll make his mark. Our guys know this: The key to this whole thing is to put all the NBA stuff in the rear-view mirror and just win six games. Jayson’s the ultimate pro, a champion. He handled it well and he’ll be ready for the next one.”

Three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic scored 20 points for Serbia while Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 14. Serbia got outscored 54-27 from the 3-point line – a big liability for the Americans in the warmup games before this tournament, but a strength on Sunday – and let the US shoot 62 per cent while getting held to 42 per cent from the floor.