Father Time might be undefeated, but don’t tell Kevin Durant and LeBron James.
The two all-time greats put on performances for the ages against Nikola Jokic and Serbia to open Team USA’s quest for a fifth Olympic gold medal in a row on Sunday in France with a 110-84 win.
Durant hit all eight shot attempts, including five three-point makes in the first half and James connected on 5-of-5 to put the U.S. up by nine at halftime against Serbia.
Durant, who turns 36 in September and missed training camp and the exhibition games heading into the tournament due to a calf injury, looked as good as ever, even in a rare reserve role. He only took one shot in the second half, a miss, but James kept up his dominance on the heels of a pair of face-saving performances in tuneup games against upstart South Sudan and defending FIBA World Cup champion Germany. James, who skipped the previous two Olympics, became at 39 the oldest athlete to ever play for Team USA. Larry Bird was 35 when he acted as the elder statesman on the Dream Team in 1992 in Barcelona.
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James finished with 21 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, Durant with 23, while Jokic, winner of three of the last four NBA MVP awards and arguably the best player in the world, had 20 points and eight assists for Serbia. Ranked No. 4 in the world, but widely considered the chief threat to the Americans after winning silver at the World Cup, Serbia was off its game, missing 28-of-37 three-point attempts. Meanwhile, the Americans shot 18-for-32 from three (56.3%), the best marksmanship by any men’s team at an Olympics since Lithuania in 2016, per TSN’s Keerthika Uthayakumar.
The game at Pierre Mauroy Stadium at least lived up to its billing early, despite James and Durant’s work. Serbia jumped out to a 10-2 start and the Americans led by only four points with 50 seconds remaining in the first half before nailed a three-pointer and then a two-point jumper with 0.01 seconds left.
USA pulled away in the latter stages of the third quarter and was never threatened again.