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Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
LILLE, France — Team USA entered their first Olympic game coming off two underwhelming performances against South Sudan and Germany earlier this month. But they opened pool play Sunday with a 110-84 win over reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia on Sunday.
Kevin Durant, the most decorated player in national team history, was cleared to return from a calf injury less than an hour before tip off and came off the bench to be the game’s leading scorer.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Team USA’s Olympic opening victory over Serbia on Sunday.
Kevin Durant returns from calf injury
It was two steps forward and one step back for Durant in his return from a calf injury. Durant said there were points in the process when he was frustrated by his slow return and points when he was nervous he wouldn’t be able to make it back to play.
“I had good days and [then] I’d [have] a little setback here and I was nervous a little bit,” Durant said. “But I’m glad the trainers did it and calmed me down a lot and let me know what I was going through.”
Durant’s timeline changed several times and Team USA coach Steve Kerr vacillated in his levels of optimism, illustrating what was going on behind the scenes. Durant said he knew he’d be able to play after he went through a full scrimmage last Thursday and woke up Friday with no pain. But Team USA considered him a gametime decision and didn’t clear his return until about an hour before tip off.
Durant played 17 minutes off the bench and was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points. He went 5-of-5 from 3.
Will Durant remain as the Sixth Man?
It’s hard to argue with the results. Durant made it clear after the game he would do what Kerr wanted. Kerr said twice after the game he didn’t know what he’d do for Wednesday’s game against South Sudan.
“I told coach whatever he needs from me, I’m willing to do anything and adapt to anything,” Durant said. “It’s always been fun trying to figure out new roles and just adapt to whatever.
Durant has played over 1,200 regular-season and playoff games in his career, starting all but three of those games. He’s now played 50 games for Team USA and come off the bench once. He very likely will be back in the starting lineup, likely replacing Devin Booker.
Booker has a strong showing on Sunday with 12 points, 5 assists and went 4-of-5 from 3.
The U.S. shook off early nerves in their debut game
The Team USA players admitted they were nervous in the first few minutes playing in front of more than 27,000 fans at Stade Pierre Mauroy. It’s a giant venue — a retractable dome soccer stadium with three decks of seats — and there were thousands of Serbian fans who’d made the trip to France. It showed, as the Americans came out a bit flat going down 10-2 in the opening minutes.
“I definitely got a little nervous. My stomach, the butterflies came out and it was something that was different even for me,” LeBron James said. “We were playing in front of a lot of people. It was just a different atmosphere.”
Jokic dropped 20 points for Serbia, but couldn’t stop James and Co. James finished just behind Durant with 21 points.
“I think I had a lot of nerves pregame,” Steph Curry said. “It’s a really cool environment in there. Obviously it was sold out to the nosebleeds and the energy was great. Putting on this jersey at this level, I’ve been looking forward to it for a very long time.”
Joel Embiid struggles, gets booed by home crowd
After two good exhibition games, Embiid struggled on Sunday. Serbia attacked him in pick-and-rolls and the U.S. got bogged down on offense at times with him in the game. He was the only player on the roster with a negative plus/minus at minus-8.
But don’t expect Kerr to switch him in the starting lineup. Team USA is committed to Embiid and to letting him work through sluggish times. First off, he made a huge commitment in choosing to play for the U.S. over France, which the local fans let him know about by heavily booing him on Sunday.
And second, the team believes his skillset will prove vital as they continue to play teams with great size. His role wasn’t even that big in the first game: He played less than 12 minutes, scoring four points with two rebounds and a block.
It was surprising Jayson Tatum never got into the game. Let Kerr tell it in his own words:
“It’s really hard in a 40 minute game to play more than 10 guys, and with Kevin coming back, I just went to the combinations that I felt would make the most sense. It seems crazy. I thought I was crazy when I looked at everything and determined these are the lineups I want to get to.
“Jayson is first-team All-NBA three years in a row, he’s one of the best players in the world. So I went with the combinations that I felt like would make sense and talked to him and he’s incredibly professional and that’s tonight. That doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way the rest of the tournament, so he’ll make his mark… Jayson is the ultimate pro and champion and he handled it well and he’s going to be ready for the next one.”
Tatum didn’t play well during the five-game exhibition tour. He averaged just 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds on 47% shooting. He missed all six of his 3-pointers. He’d been penciled in as Team USA’s sixth man, the role he played in Tokyo. But he wasn’t impactful in those games and Kerr has been playing Bam Adebayo as backup power forward, the role Tatum would’ve slid into.