Team USA began their Olympic campaign with a 110-84 win over Serbia. Kevin Durant was the star after not playing at all during the 5-game showcase leading up to Paris. In a little less than 17 minutes played, KD went for 23-points on 8-9 FG’s (5-5 3-pt). He was absolutely sensational and it was fun to watch the guys on the bench freak out when KD started hitting shots. No one in the world possess his unique blend of size, skill and scoring ability. His health is paramount to a long, successful gold medal run. LeBron James also played well, nearly racking up a triple-double (21 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists) on 9-13 FG’s (1-3 3-pt). At one point in the 3rd quarter after a tough 3-on-1 drive and made bucket, James got up in a hurry and let loose a huge roar, which seemed to get the entire US team fired up and led to a run to end the quarter. As the oldest player and most decorated, his voice carries the most weight in a team full of stars. He’s the undisputed leader on and off the court. As for the actual game, it was competitive for 3-ish quarters and then the USA’s quality and depth shone through as they ran away from the Serbians.

Steve Kerr went with a starting group of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Joel Embiid. They got off to a horrible start and only began to recover when Embiid was subbed out for Anthony Davis, who went on to have a quiet game scoring-wise but made an impact with his defense and rebounding before being hampered with foul trouble. In fact, Embiid was so poor, on both ends of the court, he only played about 12 minutes total. Bam Adebayo was very solid without filling up the box score and did a good job limiting Nikola Jokić when tasked to defend him. The surprising thing was the amount of ball-handling he did, bringing the ball down the court and initiating the offense a fair amount of times. Devin Booker was another solid performer, hitting 4 of his 5 threes and playing good defense. He’s acclimating to his role within Team USA nicely. On the other hand, Steph Curry wasn’t effective at all. Against Serbia, he scored 11-points on 4-8 FG’s (3-7 3-pt) but was repeatedly beaten off the dribble and by players cutting in behind him. Steve Kerr might need to sit down with his star PG and have a chat with him about his role and what this team needs from him; three point shooting, ball-handling and play-making. The Celtics duo of Jrue Holiday and Derrick White had a bit of a mixed bag. Both guys are here for their defense and pliability, which they showed. Although, Holiday was taking too many shots early in the game. He should only be taking shots if he’s wide-open, otherwise get the ball to LBJ, KD or one of the many other shot-makers. White played his role perfectly, causing chaos and generating turnovers. A couple of times he went for a steal and was whistled for a foul. On replay, the calls were closer than expected. Once he adjusts to the level of physicality allowed in international play, he’s going to be a problem for opposing guards and forwards. Anthony Edwards, someone who’ll take on a much, much larger role next Olympics, had a solid first outing scoring 11-points on 4-6 FG’s (2-3 3-pt). He’s the guy who should stick by LeBron during these games and soak up every little thing King James does, as Edwards might be called upon to be the leading player and leader for Team USA in 2028.

Overall, this was a good opening game for Team USA. Most of the guys who needed to get off to good starts did. The only real negative was the lack of playing time for Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, as neither looked remotely close to entering the game. It makes sense for Hali to not see the court as he has several better, more heralded guards ahead of him. As for Tatum, he did just played 19 post-season games (768 MP) en route to an NBA championship, on top of 74 regular season games (2645 MP), so fatigue might be an issue. Also, unlucky for him, he plays the same position, and does functionally similar things to LeBron and Kevin Durant. And, if we’re being honest, those two will get into this team over Tatum every single time. The only way Tatum sees the floor is if KD goes down with injury and Kerr needs another lengthy, scoring wing in the lineup. Team USA’s next matchup is against South Sudan on July 31st at noon.