LeBron James, Kevin Durant guide Team USA to win over Serbia to open Olympics

A masterful shooting performance from Kevin Durant and a near-triple-double from LeBron James powered USA to a win over Serbia to kick off the 2024 Olympics.

Behind LeBron James and Kevin Durant, Team USA opened the Olympics with a commanding win over Serbia, 110-84.

LeBron continued fending off Father Time, playing in his first Olympics game in a dozen years. It perhaps shouldn’t be shocking that he looked exactly as he did in 2012, finishing on Sunday with 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. He finished the game shooting 9-13 from the field.

It wasn’t a big statistical game for Anthony Davis, but his impact was still felt. He finished the game with seven points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes of action.

While AD did not start, he immediately got into the game in the opening minutes. Struggles from Joel Embiid contributed to Serbia's jumping out to a 10-2 lead, forcing a USA timeout and bringing Davis into the game for the Sixer big man.

LeBron was the catalyst for getting USA back into the game early before Kevin Durant, playing his first game this summer, unloaded with 21 first-half points on 8-8 shooting overall and 5-5 shooting from range.

KD and LeBron, in fact, started the game 13-13 from the field combined for 33 of USA’s 58 first-half points. Behind them, USA opened up a double-digit lead.

During that stretch through the end of the first and into the second, AD found himself in foul trouble as, predictably, defending Nikola Jokic is no easy task. USA as a whole struggled to find answers for Jokic as he had 12 first-half points.

A late flurry in the second quarter from KD, though, gave USA the lead heading into the locker room. He knocked down a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left and a fadeaway jumper in the closing seconds, giving America a 58-49 advantage.

The second half saw LeBron start to assert himself again as a pair of fastbreak finishes, the latter of which came through contact, gave USA a 73-59 lead and forced a Serbia timeout.

The chemistry between AD and LeBron was on full display later in the quarter as well. The eighth assist of the day for LeBron came on a wild alley-oop that AD finished through contact for an and-one.

USA really began flexing its collective muscle in the third and opened up a nearly 20-point lead heading into the final frame. AD was on the floor at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth when the margin hovered around 20 points.

Serbia tried a brief run to make it a game but USA comfortably saw the game out to start Olympic play with a victory.

America will be back in action on Wednesday when they have a surprisingly anticipated rematch with South Sudan. Earlier in the day on Sunday, South Sudan beat Puerto Rico, 90-79.

Tip is scheduled for noon PT.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.