Kevin Durant comes off bench in U.S. Olympic opener vs. Serbia

Kevin Durant made his return to Staff USA for Sunday’s Olympic opener towards Serbia on the Paris Video games and confirmed what the People had been lacking with him out.

Durant entered the sport within the first quarter and made his first shot try, a 3-pointer, then went on to have an ideal capturing half, going 8-for-8 from the sphere (5-for-5 from 3) to guide all scorers with 21 factors on the break.

USA Basketball introduced that Durant could be obtainable to play about an hour earlier than the sport. Durant wasn’t within the beginning lineup after coach Steve Kerr indicated Saturday that the Phoenix Suns star would possibly come off the bench in his return.

Joel Embiid began for the U.S. after he missed apply Saturday with an sickness.

Durant missed all 5 of the workforce’s pre-Olympic exhibitions with a calf pressure. He initially obtained harm a couple of days earlier than the workforce convened in Las Vegas for coaching camp in early July and had returned to full apply final week.

He’s bidding to turn into the primary four-time Olympic males’s basketball gold medalist. The all-time U.S. males’s chief in Olympic scoring was on the groups that gained titles on the London Video games in 2012, the Rio de Janeiro Video games in 2016 and the Tokyo Video games in 2021.

The Related Press contributed to this report.