With the Dream Team 2.0, Steve Kerr almost has a double-edged sword at his disposal. A roster stacked with 12 stars and a handful of first-ballot future Hall of Famers, the trick is to find the right equation. The first part of it was to play LeBron James as a point forward. And the rest? That’s more like under progress.

This was made abundantly clear in USAB’s second exhibition game in Abu Dhabi against Australia. With Kevin Durant out of action, Kerr made two changes tonight from the starting lineup against Canada. As predicted, after witnessing the practice footage, Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum came in. After a bright start, it looked like Team USAB was heading towards a blowout win, but that was far from the truth and LeBron’s post-game reaction made it clear.

Following the game, when the players were locker room-bound, the camera was on LeBron. Without mincing his words, LeBron said, “Good test.” He again repeated the same words but this time gritting his teeth. The body language said it all. It was too close for comfort as the USA survived a late scare to clinch a 98-92 win.

In the first half, team USA got off to a flying start thanks to the Ant-Man. The Timberwolves guard sunk each of his shots and scored 12 points as Team USA went into the break with a 55-37 lead. The game changed in the second half as they looked more like individuals in a team rather than a cohesive unit. Anthony Davis impressed with a double-double consisting of 17 points and 14 rebounds. “Played well, we can play better but we gotta win,” Jayson Tatum said after the game. Those who watched the game will vehemently refuse to agree with the first part but will demand that the team does the second part well, which is to play better.

Looking at LeBron James’ performance in Team USA’s win

At the age of 39, this might be the final few outings for LeBron in a USA jersey. After two back-to-back gold medals in the Olympics from 2008-2012, this year will probably be his final chance to add a third one. With age, LeBron has lost a good chunk of his burst of pace but is still an elite-level ball-handler and shooter. Steve Kerr is trying to focus on that by playing him in the backcourt with the responsibility of pulling the string from deep.

LeBron was limited to 10 points on the night in the 21 minutes he played. The plan seemed to work with LeBron setting up his teammates 3 times, including one to AD, showing their LA connection. Bron also managed to clean the board 3 times while sinking 2 out of 4 attempts from the deep. Team USA was mostly reliant on 3-pts shooting, with an overall success rate of 41%.

But ahead of the Serbia game on Wednesday, they’ll have more questions to solve than answers they sought. For those who thought the Olympics would’ve been a cakewalk with this side, this performance has thoroughly corrected them as Steve Kerr, the wielder of the double-edged USA sword, narrowly escaped a deep wound.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what brand maker, Leonard Armato, had to say about the deadly duo, Shaq and Kobe, check out this video