LILLE (France) - Kevin Durant is incredible, how else can you describe his performance?
The USA superstar missed the entire preparation campaign for the 2024 Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament and then produced as if he had been on board all along.
The 35-year-old Durant, who has three gold medals, collected 23 points and 2 rebounds, but he had a first half for the ages.
He even shocked his USA teammates in scoring 21 point on a perfect 8-of-8 shooting including 5 three-pointers in just 8:39 minutes in the first half.
In the first half, Durant was a picture of perfection - hitting three-pointers over Serbian centers Nikola Milutinov and Nikola Jokic among his five triples.
And Durant finished the first half on a real highlight. With 3 seconds to go, Durant curled into the paint and LeBron James delivered an on-point pass for KD to catch and shoot a turnaround jumper and finished on the ground at the buzzer.
"It felt good to make some shots. Everybody played their role pretty well tonight. My role was to come in and provide spacing and shot making for the team and I was glad I was able to knock them down," Durant said.
"I have been playing basketball my whole life so I just simplify it and bring it back to it's just playing basketball at the end of the day."
Durant was a question mark until hours before the game as he dealt with a calf strain suffered days before the Americans' Olympic training camp began July 6.
Durant could only shoot on the side until the Americans arrrived in London late last week. And only practiced with the team again on Wednesday.
"My lungs are still getting used to playing a game and running up and down the court. I haven't played a game since the playoffs or play pickup," Durant said.
Durant's long-time NBA rival and USA Basketball teammate LeBron James was not surprised with what he saw.
KD is an out-of-this-world talent - LeBron James
"At the end of the day it's not a surprise. He's an out-of-this-world talent. At practice he goes just as hard as he does in the game. He goes even harder in practice so it's just routine for him. What KD was doing was just remarkable," James said.
Anthony Davis added: "KD was great. He's the all-time leading scorer for USA Basketball. He has the ability to score the basketball. He draws a crowd, he draws attention and to have him back as far as our spacing goes is really good for us."
The Americans did not really need Durant to do much in the second half. He was off-target on his ninth and final attempt, missing a chance to set the Olympics record for field goals made without a miss. The men's record holder is Andrei Lopatov of the Soviet Union, who went 12 of 12 in 1980 against Spain in the Third-Place Game.
"It felt great leaving my hand. I definitely wanted to finish the game perfect," Durant said with a laugh afterwards.
His 23 points left Durant with 458 all-time in the Olympics, just three from moving into the top 10 all-time.
By playing in the game, Durant moved up the all-time Top 10 for Olympics games won with 21.
Most games won all-time at the Olympics
*Active players
FIBA