Paris 2024: USA thrash Serbia 110&84 in Men’s Basketball

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 U.S. 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 rebounds and seven assists and the U.S. rolled to a 110-84 win over Serbia in the Olympic opener for both teams on Sunday.

“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 — 8 of 9 for Durant, 9 of 13 for James — as the U.S. had no trouble with the reigning World Cup silver medalists 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 U.S.

The U.S. 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 U.S. coach Steve Kerr thought was crazy when he decided to do it.