Kevin Durant ‘hopefully’ will play Team USA’s Olympic opener vs. Serbia

There is hope that Kevin Durant plays for the U.S. in its Olympic opener against Serbia on Sunday, which means the men’s national team may have 12 players available for the first time this summer.

That is, unless something else happens.

The Americans open their path toward what they hope is a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal when they take on three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić and World Cup finalist Serbia in the opener for both teams at the Paris Games. Durant missed all five exhibition games the U.S. played coming into Paris because of a calf strain, and coach Steve Kerr stopped short of definitively saying Saturday that he is in the lineup for the opener.

“Hopefully,” Kerr said.

Durant was on the floor for practice, while presumed starting center Joel Embiid was not because of illness. Kerr said he didn’t expect Embiid to miss Sunday’s game.

“I’m confident we’ll have everybody ready tomorrow,” Kerr said.

There have been signs in recent days that USA Basketball expects Durant — a three-time gold medalist, now bidding to become the first player who can say he’s a four-time Olympic men’s basketball champion — will be ready to go. First, it didn’t replace him on the roster. Second, it released clips of a Thursday scrimmage where Durant was active and even had a reverse dunk (plus got dunked on by Anthony Edwards, who idolizes him). And third, Kerr insisted earlier in the week that he wasn’t concerned about Durant’s status.

“We’ll see how things go in practice today,” Kerr said Saturday. “So far, so good. He came through the scrimmage two days ago pretty well.”

The team convened for its first practice of the summer in Las Vegas on July 6, about a week and a half after Durant strained the calf. He couldn’t take part in practices there, didn’t play in the first exhibition win over Canada before the Americans left for their overseas legs of the pre-Olympic tour and then the waiting game was on.

Durant did some on-court work in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, but missed two more exhibitions there, against Serbia and Australia. He did more work in London but missed the two exhibitions the U.S. played there against South Sudan and Germany as well.

He said he made the best of the situation.

“It’s been incredible,” Durant said. “I mean, I haven’t played yet, but just being on the sideline, on the bench, I’ve got more energy than I’ve had in the past. I hate not playing, but just watching these guys, how they operate, it’s just been incredible.”

In Olympic play, Durant has been incredible as well.

Before Durant came along, Adrian Dantley had the highest scoring average for a U.S. men’s player in an Olympic tournament; he averaged 19.3 points at the 1976 Montreal Games. That’s now fourth on the single-Olympics U.S. list behind Durant’s 20.7 points per game at the Tokyo Games three years ago, Durant’s 19.5 points per game at the 2012 London Games and Durant’s 19.4 points per game at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

He has scored 435 points in Olympic play, the most in U.S. men’s history, 99 more than Carmelo Anthony. He is third in rebounds for the U.S. men with 118, seven behind Anthony and six behind David Robinson. He is the all-time U.S. men’s leader in Olympic 3-pointers made with 74 and the all-time leader in free throws made with 69.

“Instant impact. Instant impact,” U.S. forward LeBron James said, when asked about what Durant would add to the mix when he returns. “He looked extremely well the other day in practice. Obviously, his wind, his rhythm is going to continue to come, but to be able to get him back, it makes a huge impact for our club.”

And if all that wasn’t enough, there’s this: The U.S. is 21-1 in Olympic Games with Durant in the lineup, and he’s won a pair of NBA championships with Kerr during their three seasons together with the Golden State Warriors.

“I know how hard he works because I’ve seen it up close and personal for three years, and I know the level that he’s trying to get to competitively to be his best self and why he is the all-time leading scorer in (U.S.) Olympic history,” Warriors guard and first-time Olympian Stephen Curry said. “So, you thrive off of that, that preparation to give you confidence that says ‘Hey, we’re here for business, but we’re also here to continue to learn from each other.'”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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