The U.S. men’s basketball team is off to a favorable start after defeating Serbia by double-digits at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France on Sunday in its first game of the 2024 Paris Olympics.. full details below 👇 👇
The 2024 Team USA is one of the most condensed groups of basketball talent America has to offer. Perhaps most comparable to the 1992 Dream Team or the 2008 Redeem Team — two other iterations of Team USA’s Olympic squad — this group of All-Stars and champions is a showcase of NBA talent.Led by Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who also served as assistant coach to Gregg Popovich in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Team USA has arguably their most star-studded roster since the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics.Kerr’s starting lineup consisted of Celtics guard Jrue Holiday, Suns guard Devin Booker, Lakers forward LeBron James, Warriors guard Stephen Curry and 76ers center Joel Embiid.Aside from helping his team secure their first win in the Olympics with 23 points, bench player and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant’s first-half shooting was impeccable. Durant, the 14-time All-Star, dropped 20 points on 100% from the field in the first half, something he has never done in his NBA career. His offensive performance also set a record for the most 20-point Olympic Games in U.S. men’s basketball history, as Durant is already the all-time leading scorer for Team USADurant’s absence from the team’s last Olympics warmup due to a leg injury left fans questioning his availability for Sunday’s game, but worry dissipated with every swoosh of his 8-for-9 shooting from the field and his five makes in as many chances from the 3-point line.“I’m sitting here thinking about what KD just did [tonight],” three-time NBA Champion and 2024 Paris Olympics analyst Dwyane Wade said via X on Sunday. “I just watch[ed] one of the greatest basketball moments in my life time. Living Legend!”Durant wasn’t the only star shining on the court, though. USA’s first points on the board were put up by the team’s most seasoned vet, James, in typical “King James” fashion: a Serbian turnover by Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic translated into a slam dunk for the Los Angeles Laker.Three layups from Serbia’s guard Aleska Avramovic in the first three minutes gave the team an early lead, but the Americans answered with a 9-0 run halfway through the quarter.Durant’s 3-point jumper with 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter claimed back the lead for Team USA. The Serbians remained in the rearview mirror, and the Americans’ second-half momentum closed the door for a Serbian comeback.Despite the collective 15 NBA Championships and decades of experience between the 12 players, this is the first Olympic appearance for nearly half of them. The Olympics abide by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules, so while Olympic basketball isn’t too foreign from the NBA, there are a few adjustments for Team USA players.Aside from a formatting difference of 10-minute quarters versus the NBA’s 12-minute frames, a few other rule changes include the legality of goaltending, five personal fouls for disqualification (versus six in the NBA) and a closer 3-point line.The Games always call for a few adjustments — between new coaches, teammates and regulations — but if Team USA’s undefeated showcase games and Sunday’s performance against Serbia reveal anything, it’s that the Americans are going for gold.“A lot of these other teams have been playing together since they were kids, and we get together for a couple weeks [before the Games start], so we had to build that camaraderie and that trust pretty quickly,” Durant said to NBC correspondent Mike Tirico on Sunday. “But you see it out there, everyone’s playing for one another…it’s just the pinnacle of basketball when you do that.”1‘
