LeBron James & Team USA vs. Nikola Jokic & Serbia: Paris Olympics Basketball Game

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games officially kicked off Friday, July 26th with opening ceremonies

LeBron James was the first ever male basketball athlete for Team USA to carry the flag

And although yesterday, the first basketball games were played for the men's side

today was Team USA's first Olympic game in group play, facing off versus Nikoli Jokic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Serbia

Serbia is currently ranked fourth in the world. They won silver at the FIBA World Cup last year without Jokic

And although Team USA had just beaten them handily in an exhibition match leading up to

the Olympics, they did not have bogey. Team USA did not have Kevin Durant either

Both players are healthy and playing in this game. Matter of fact, Kevin Durant did not play at all in the pre-Olympic tune-ups for Team

USA, a massive addition. He will start coming off the bench. At 14 USA, Steve Kerr is rolling with his most consistent starting lineup

Steph Curry, LeBron James, Devin Booker, Drew Holiday, and Joel Embiid. Before we get right into the recap of this game

I want to say if you're wondering why there's less game footage in some of these

compared to the exhibition recaps I did, that's because NBC is way more strict with copyright in the exhibitions where on Fox

So if you see more alternate angles or just graphics, you know why

Team USA starts off pretty lackadaisical, getting down 10-2, including this steal right away by Alexa Avramovic

And then again, after another Avramovic layup, Joel Embiid throws the ball away

Serbia gets another bucket, which is how they got this 10-2 lead early

Steve Kerr immediately calls timeout, puts in Anthony Davis, benches Joel Embiid

Honestly, Anthony Davis probably should be starting over Joel, just given how those five exhibition games went

AD has been phenomenal for Team USA and they play in such a better flow with him. Team USA then goes

on a 9-0 run of their own to get up 14-12 on the back of a couple of Devin Booker threes and then a

LeBron and one. And Steve Kerr did something interesting. His first subs besides benching

Joel Embiid after that bad turnover were to just bring in Anthony Edwards and Derek White. So he's

doing a lot more of traditional subbing than just the five in five out. Starters play together

second unit plays together that he did during the exhibitions but serbia is not just gonna go away

easily matter of fact nikola jovic hits this corner three and then jokic has a great seal

allowing bogey to get a layup after this jokic free throw serbia is up 20 to 14 and this is when

steve kerr opts to finally go to kevin durant he's been hurt with a calf injury during the exhibition

pre-olympic tune-ups and something i personally did not know is that he is the all-time leading

score for team usa's national team passing carmelo anthony in 2021 in tokyo immediately

first possession matter of fact first touch kevin durant hits a three anthony edwards hits a pull

up three of his own contributing alongside his childhood hero and then katie again gets left

wide open hits another three this alley-oop from lebron to ant ends the quarter team usa is up 25

to 20. To start the second quarter, Kevin Durant is still out there. He hits this pull up middie

and is now three for three to start. Just a couple of possessions later, Kevin Durant hits another

pull up three. He's now four for four, including three for three from the three point line. And

remember, it is very tough to play with people that you do not play with. Kevin Durant, this is

his first action in a game in this Olympic cycle. He didn't even play in the scrimmages with Team

USA select team And you can tell he amped Cause after that pull up three he is getting absolutely after it on defense here lebron extends the lead to 9 32 23 and then again kevin durant another three

pointer he's got 14 points five for five from the field and team usa is up 10 joel and bead will

check back in and i know a lot of people want to see him fail i honestly really don't i'm cheering

for him but he does look just a little lost out there i'm hoping he can bounce back and just get

into a flow after that rough start. And he does so with this great ball movement, LeBron to Steph

to Joel, 38 to 27. After six straight Jokic points, Serbia starts full court pressing. LeBron hits a

three, Steph Curry hits a three, and that's the deadliness of Team USA. The shooting is just out

of this world. And if you watch this game, Serbia runs a lot of really good sets. Jokic generates a

ton of good looks for his teammates, whether it's via screen, ceiling, or passing. Problem is

his team just does not have the shooting that team usa has speaking of shooting serbia does hit this

corner three and they get a foul on seth curry on it that's a four-point play and then after this

jokic steal and fast break serbia is down just two points 46 44 kd's back in the game he hits a

fadeaway jumper he's still perfect from the field 16 points up 53 to 49 kevin durant recognizes they

have a two for one opportunity and he pulls up from three again he now has 19 still perfect and

then for good measure right before half with just a few seconds left on the clock team usa runs a

side out of bounds play gets it to kevin durant for a fadeaway jumper he hits it team usa is up

63 to 51 kevin durant has 21 points at half on a perfect eight for eight from the field

five for five from three this is absolutely ridiculous from katie i'll have to check this

to make sure but i don't know if there's a better individual performance in a half in olympic

basketball history 21 points perfect from the field and he had a plus 17 plus minus in that

first half remember he checked in when team usa was down 20 to 14 and they're up 12 at the break

one other thing that people didn't really mention in that first half is that lebron was fantastic

as well he was five for five from the field did not miss a shot early in the second half i feel

like this was a massive flop from serbia's avramovich joel and bead somehow gets an unsportsman

like call on this which is the fibas equivalent of a flagrant and as you can see here avramovich

did not get hit in the face i don't know why he's acting like he did joel gets an and one against

jokic but it's actually avramovich that hacks him on the end one and joel has something to say about

it he's not too happy with that flop earlier this play right here really signifies what lebron james

has done for this team usa team at 39 years old gets the strip on nicolejovic finishes the fast

break by himself with this lefty layup and he is absolutely hyped let's freaking go lebron ant has

this awesome fake fadeaway step through we saw in nba playoffs to end the third quarter team usa has

opened this one up 84 to 65 and then early in this fourth quarter kd misses his first shot of the

game he did have two free throws in that third quarter we did not mention so he's at 23 points

eight for nine from the field and this fourth quarter team usa doesn't really let it get that

close serbia made a little bit of a run getting it to 12 but the united states did a good job of

closing it out including steph getting this offensive board at the very end of the game

hitting this three while looking away before it went in. Team USA wins 110-84 and that's huge

because in group play point differential does matter And just so you know we going to take a look at the box scores first but afterwards we will look and recap very quickly how the rest of the Olympics

are looking when it comes to basketball from Saturday and today. To really just get us a good look

at where these groups are at. Let's start with Serbia's box scores. I mean, Jokic actually played very well

He had a plus minus of zero in 31 minutes, which is insane if you think about it

because that means in the nine minutes he sat on the bench, Serbia got outscored by 26 points

Jokic would finish with 20 points himself. On eight for 15 from the field

eight assists, five rebounds, and four blocks. Bogey did not have a very good game

He had 14 points, but he shot just six for 14 from the field. And Serbia needs Bogey to play better than that

if they want a chance to beat a team like Team USA. on the american side obviously kevin durant was absolutely incredible 23 points eight for nine

from the field he would finish a plus minus of 20 in just 16 minutes of play and as incredible

of a game and more particularly a first half it was for kd lebron james was insane as well he had

21 points himself nine assists seven rebounds in a team high plus minus of 21 doing it all on high

efficiency 9 for 13 from the field Seth would finish with 11 points himself Anthony Edwards 11

as well Drew Holiday had 15 Devin Booker 12 one thing that was interesting about Steve Kerr in

this game is he elected to not play Jason Tatum at all which has been an anomaly in the exhibitions

leading up to this Olympics at the same time Kevin Durant was not playing in those exhibition

games but i don't see how jason tatum got completely xed out from the rotation i would

assume what steve kerr is thinking is that guys like derrick white and drew holiday he can tell

them to just go guard serbia's best guards like bogey shut him down completely and then on the

offensive end just let the ball come to you move without the ball and stay in the flow of the

offense whereas jason tatum is probably going to want the ball more than that but at the same time

why not just ask jason tatum to have a different role it's the national team it's the olympics

everyone knows they're not the number one option so anyways there's a lot of memes going on about

that on twitter he's getting kind of cooked but i guess it is what it is it's kind of funny but

at the same time i feel bad for him he didn't deserve to play zero minutes and same with

halliburton kind of feel bad for him as well but that's just the nature of playing on a team with

stephen curry lebron james and kevin durant joel and bead was a team worst minus eight plus minus

and he's just not doing himself any favors i'm hoping that he can figure it out at some point

because AD was again, even with AD being in foul trouble, not having that great of a game

was much better than Joel once again. That's how six games in a row

he's been better than Joel Embiid. And I do have to say, I was incorrect about LeBron

having the best plus minus on the team. It actually was Anthony Davis

with a plus minus of 28 in just 19 minutes. I was shocked to see that

because he was in foul trouble a little bit and he had just seven points. But when AD's out there, Team USA wins

And that's just the nature of it. Even Bam. bam has been much better than joelle and bead in this olympic cycle so far so team usa will play

again in group play on wednesday july 31st versus south sudan if you've been watching my videos or

been following along during the exhibition tune-ups they almost got beat by south sudan it took

a lebron james layup to win with just a few seconds to go and honestly kind of a botched last

second shot from South Sudan. So we shall see. We'll see how Team USA responds

And as for the rest of the games that have been played so far in the Olympics on Saturday we had australia taking on spain australia wins 92 to 80 josh giddy had 17 8 and 8 in that one and then jock landale had 29 and 5

with a team high plus 30 plus minus i'm starting to think australia has a chance to medal in these

Olympics. And then we also had Greece taking on Canada. Canada wins 86 to 79. SGA had 21

seven and five. RJ Barrett had 23 points. Dylan Brooks, 14. Jamal Murray didn't have that great

of a game. Didn't play that much either. Just eight points on two for six from the field. And

team Canada has a big man problem. They have Dwight Powell starting for them, 21 minutes. And then

uh kelly olenek and trey lyles as their only other really big men on the roster janice literally did

all he could for greece he played 33 minutes 34 points on 11 for 17 from the field group b also

played on saturday germany versus japan germany wins 97 to 77 franz wagner led the team with 22

points dennis schruder had 13 and 12 and then daniel tice had 18 points on a perfect 7 for 7

from the field. Team France would beat Brazil 78-66 thanks to a 9 point third quarter for Brazil

Wemby was awesome in this game. He had 19 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks. And then

Nicholas Batum had 19 points as well. Then finally, Group C South Sudan would beat Puerto Rico

earlier today 92-79. Puerto Rico was actually up 6 points at half. And it's unfortunate for Puerto

rico because jose alvarado sprained his ankle in the first half after dropping 19 points on six for

eight from the field he'd return the second half but you could tell it was affecting him he finishes

with 26 points carly jones balled again for south sudan 19 points seven rebounds six assists so

here's the official standing so far for the five on five men's basketball olympics the top two teams

in each group will advance to the quarterfinals and then the two best third place teams based off

point differential will be advancing as well those will begin in a week on august 5th and so we'll

have a fun week here of group play hope you guys enjoyed this video if team usa plays like this

nobody can beat them and although i'd be super scared of team canada they just don't have a big

man i feel like ad and bam and even joelle and bead would absolutely eat versus team canada we'll

have to see like i said from the beginning i'm holding team usa to the highest standard possible

given the talent on this roster and although i was very disappointed in the south sudan game

maybe to a lesser extent the australia game if they continue to play like this throughout these

entire olympics they're gonna put themselves in a conversation especially with how much the game

of basketball has grown over the past couple decades. Hope you guys enjoyed this video

I'm excited to make some other videos centered around Wemby or even Giannis with Greece

depending on how these games go over the next couple days. And then of course, be on the lookout for a video

after the Team USA South Sudan game on Wednesday. I'm feeling pretty good

I felt like Team USA's ball movement was much better today. Derek White and Drew Holiday are just invaluable

on the defensive end and even on the offensive end because the ball never sticks with them on the court

They never let themselves be the reason offense will get out of the flow

They cut, they set screens. They do everything you'd want to do on the court

Legendary performance from Kevin Durant and honestly, legendary performance from LeBron James

35 and 39 years old. Thanks for watching this one, guys, and we'll see you on the hardwood