What a start from Team USA! A blowout win that matched all the hoop lover’s expectations. Despite the early-minute jitters, LeBron James and Co. came out firing and didn’t they just decimate the Nikola Jokic-led Serbia? The 110-84 win not only means two points, it means 26-point differentials, which might come in handy down the line in case of complications because of the point system. But how dominating it looked on opening day for Team USA, qualifying on the virtue of point differentials is only a mere afterthought, for now.

The biggest takeaway from the game has to be Kevin Durant‘s return. The Slim Reaper made it look simple as he recorded the game-high points. As the game progressed, Team USA looked more potent, more fluid, and more dynamic on the break. If this wasn’t scary enough, LeBron James made a definitive statement after the game that should be enough to keep the competition on notice. This was also something for Steph Curry to note as he made a comment that put him in disagreement with his 39-year-old pal.

During a courtside interview after the win, LeBron James opened up about various aspects and his takeaways from the game. The Dubs ace claimed that FIBA’s rules differ from those of the NBA, which has led to a few slow-scoring nights. The Splash Brother had initially said, “You talked about muscle memory and I know where I am in relation to the line on NBA courts and have a certain relation to that, a certain familiarity. It’s a little bit different.” Hearing this was off-putting for many people, especially because it came from someone many youngsters look up to within Team USA itself.

But according to LeBron James, after the crucial opening win to kickstart their 5-in-a-row Gold dream, he said, “We’re very seasoned in FIBA games. You know, we play a lot of international basketball when it comes to the Olympics, the World Championships.”

Steph’s troubles continued, as he could only manage 11 points before being pulled out of proceedings. LeBron, on the other hand, dropped another masterful performance with a 21-7-9 stat line! The returning KD also showed why he is Team USA’s top-scorer in Olympic basketball, as he added another 23 to take his all-time tally to 458 points. KD sank all his 5 shots from downtown as if he never skipped a beat. King James expressed understandable delight in the Suns vet, playing his first game since the hooper’s initial scrimmages.

LeBron James admits having Kevin Durant “is a treat” in Team USA

It was a repeat of the demolition job that Team USA carried out during the pre-Olympic exhibition game against Serbia. And after today’s performance, one can easily feel Team USA has perfected the art of blowout. Of course, tougher tests are on their way, with the next one being South Sudan, who pushed LeBron James to the limits in London just a week or so ago. Before that, Kevin Durant’s performance showed a lot of promise and LeBron had no doubts about it. “I think we can bring out the best in one another.”

“So to have KD on our side, to have KD on my side is a treat for sure. We all get better with our turnovers. I mean, obviously, we’re trying to make the right play, so you can never exclude that, “ LeBron said. 

“But there’s some of the killer turnovers that we had that we could give ourselves even more, possessions offensively. We’d be better coming up on Wednesday,” the 39-year-old added when asked about the preparation for the next game. Turnovers had been a major bug in Team USA’s play throughout the exhibition games and even on Sunday. LeBron and Co. gave up possession 17 times with mishandling of passes. In the 5 games before the Serbia Olympics opener, Team USA recorded 71 turnovers; almost 14 turnovers per game.

On the other hand, South Sudan will be on a high after making Olympic history with a 90-79 win over Puerto Rico in the other Group C game. Hence, given the need of the hour, Team USA must focus on better care in possession, as things will only get tougher from this point on. 

And to absorb more interesting stories, watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where the prodigy puts Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr under the pump with loaded NBA questions and more in this video below.