Suns and Team USA forward Kevin Durant made his return to the U.S. Olympic team after missing the exhibition slate of games with a calf injury. He impressed right away, scoring 23 points while making eight of his nine shot attempts in under 17 minutes of play on Sunday, as detailed by Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
Team USA head coach Steve Kerr planned on easing Durant in the rotation, but the star forward forced Kerr’s hand with his strong play. He scored five three-pointers in the first half and didn’t miss a shot until the fourth quarter. The Americans defeated Serbia 110-84.
Durant opened up about his return, including how he felt after his outstanding game.
“I was tired, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Durant said after the game. “My lungs were getting used to that, the intensity of the game, but it felt good to make some shots. I think everybody played their role pretty well tonight. My role was to come and provide spacing and shot making for the team and glad I was able to knock them down.”
Below are more highlights from Durant’s comments to reporters, as gathered by The Athletic’s Sam Amick and BasketNews.
On coming off the bench in the Olympic opener:
“I’ve [come off the bench] a couple of times in the NBA — three times. That’s enough for me to just kind of lean on those times. You know, that’s what I thought about as I was coming in, just staying ready mentally, staying focused on what the game plan is. And when I come in, don’t make the game about myself. Try to add to the team. And tonight I was able to [do that].
“I told Coach [Kerr], whatever he needs from me, I’m willing to do anything and adapt to anything. So it’s always been fun trying to figure out new roles and just adapt to whatever the game tells you to do.”
On having LeBron James back on the Olympic Team:
“I’m so grateful to have him back. We missed him in the last two Olympics. He puts fear in the other team. I think that goes a long way, the psyche of the game, so he’s running downhill, making the right plays on the offense and defensive end. He’s just insane, and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
On whether today’s win is the best game Team USA has played this summer:
“I just think all of those games and those practices leading up until today prepared us. Coach has been doing a great job of keeping us on our toes and letting us know how important each day is, so we try to come together pretty quickly I think the beauty of tonight is we played a lot of random basketball on the offensive side.
“Defensively, we were talking to one another throughout the whole game, so that communication and that random basketball made us tough to stop. So we continue to build on this and see where we can go.”
On playing in front of fans and how it compares to the Tokyo Olympics that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic:
“[It was] incredible. 27,000 [fans]. I looked around, and I saw so many different NBA jerseys in the stands. I just love when the game of basketball can bring people from all over the world, different walks of life together like this. [Tokyo] seems like so long ago. The era of the world seems like it was just 20 years ago, and also to see so many people in here supporting the game of basketball.”
You heard it here first…USA is not winning the gold medal this year
Yeah, I am starting to think similar thoughts…
Its like Lebron called his friends and this is the team.
We will see what happens with South Sudan, but if USA is sitting Haliburton and Tatum for Booker and Embiid who basically play no defense, well sorry Embiid gets a block every game, then I am concerned.
Not playing Tatum is awesome actually. Brown is already pissed. Now you disrespect Tatum…Oh, you think the Celtics cannot repeat??? All the Celtics need is Porzingis healthy and something to put up on the bulletin board and THANK YOU STEVE KERR.
I will bet the Boston v. GSW games will be something special… for Celtic fans. Calling a 40 pt blowout, now.
The goal is to win the gold, not make a specific player/s happy ….. it’s virtually an all star team, it’s impossible to give everyone good minutes.
I don’t know what’s worse, a CELTIC fan living off a 16 year old championship ….. Or a CELTIC fan living off a month old championship.
Yeah, obviously putting KD on a team with Steph and Kerr is going to destroy everyone, we all remember 2017-2019.
KD leaving GSW is by far the most idiotic thing he ever did. They would have won 3 more in row from 2021-2023 at minimum if he stayed.
Disagree. Hard to imagine a Dubs team with no Klay and a slowly-recovering KD beating even that Phoenix squad in ‘21, Davey J. ‘22 with KD likely woulda been an even more resounding domination through the West than reality ‘22. And then ‘23 woulda been a dogfight, not favoring the Dubs. One thing’s for sure though: they wouldn’t have gotten swept to Cancun by the Nuggets, like Brawny Sensation and the Lakers nosedive-of-an-attempt to re-establish relevancy and try capture a more meaningful title than the one they got when very few people gave a damn about basketball in fall ‘20.