The USA men’s basketball team’s quest for gold got underway on Sunday afternoon in Lille, France, where they faced medal threat Serbia in their Olympics opener and, after a rocky first few minutes, turned on the jets and absolutely dominated Serbia, 110-84. It was a statement performance, with LeBron James continuing to be the American’s best player this summer and Kevin Durant making a triumphant debut after missing the exhibition slate with a calf strain, scoring 21 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting in the first half.
Just about everyone that saw the court for Team USA looked good, as Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, and Anthony Edwards all also reached double figures, while Anthony Davis, Derrick White, and Bam Adebayo were excellent on defense off the bench. The only question mark among those that played continues to be Joel Embiid at starting center, where he just has not found a comfort level with the preferred fast tempo of Team USA and being a secondary option on offense. Other than that, it was a standout performance from Team USA and asserted themselves firmly as the favorites in case there was any doubt after a couple shaky wins to close out their showcase run.
There were two DNPs in the game for Team USA, though. Tyrese Haliburton unsurprisingly on the list after his minutes slowly faded away during the exhibition slate, and he seems to have embraced his role as hype man, as the USA squad has a greater need for defense from its guard spots than another scorer. The other DNP-CD was Jayson Tatum, who played in every exhibition game and started a couple, but found himself as the odd man out of the wing rotation with Kevin Durant’s return to action. That came as a surprise to many, as Tatum is fresh off his first championship and another All-NBA campaign in Boston.
However, as Steve Kerr said after the game, that was just how things shook out with the lineups they wanted to get to with KD back, but he did note he “felt like an idiot” not playing Tatum because he is one of the best in the world.
“[Jayson Tatum] handled it well. I talked to him today before the game, that it may play out this way just with Kevin [Durant] coming back… I felt like an idiot not playing him… [In] a 40-minute game, you can’t play more than 10.”
— Steve Kerr
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— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 28, 2024
One of the greatest challenges in coaching Team USA is ego management, and Kerr clearly recognizes that tightrope here. As he notes, Tatum will play and get his opportunities later when there are matchups that are better suited for lineups with him in them. While Tatum and Celtics fans may have been upset about it, it’s hard to argue with the results from Team USA’s opener and any of the lineup choices Kerr has made — with the exception of Embiid starting, which is a whole different delicate situation that Tatum wouldn’t factor into.
It seems likely that Tatum will be back in action against South Sudan on Tuesday, but it’ll be fascinating to see who ends up the odd man out to make that happen, because someone else who played well in the opener will have to sacrifice minutes to get Tatum involved.