The USA Men’s National
Basketball Team started off strong in its pursuit of a 5th straight
gold medal after routing Serbia, 110-84, at the Pierre de Mauroy
Stadium in Lille, France.
Team USA cleared any first-game
jitters that have plagued some of the best teams in the world with
a blowout. Several Team USA players are playing in their first-ever
Olympic Games, including legend Stephen Curry, NBA MVP Joel Embiid,
and rising superstar Anthony Edwards.
Leading the way for the
Americans were 4-time Olympians LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who
led both in scoring and manning the entire team. James previously
played in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Games while Durant appeared in
2012, 2016, and 2020 editions.
James had an all-around
performance, scoring 21 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and dishing
out a team-best 9 assists on a game-high 27 minutes played. Durant
on the other hand looked really good in his first game back after
missing all of Team USA’s 5 exhibition games over the past month.
Durant finished with a game-high 23 points on an impressive 8/9
shooting from the field, hitting 5/5 threes. He did all that in
just 16 minutes after coming off the bench in this game.
Six players scored in double
digits for Team USA in this overall team effort to dismantle
reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia.
Up next for Team USA is South
Sudan who gave them fits in their exhibition game in London,
winning by just one point, 101-100.
