Kevin Durant shines for Team USA in win vs. Serbia, despite missing time with injury

Team USA has started their road to another gold medal in dominant fashion during the Paris Olympic Games. Team USA picked up a 110-84 victory over Nikola Jokic and Serbia won on Sunday, led by one of the most prolific scorers in Olympic history.

Kevin Durant led the way for the USA with a brilliant performance, scoring 23 points on 8-of-8 shooting, including 21 in the first half. He managed to do so while coming off the bench and checking in late in the first quarter.

"Oh man, it felt great leaving my hands," Durant laughed after missing his only shot of the second half, "I definitely wanted to finish the game perfect."

Durant sat out during the exhibition games while nursing a calf injury he suffered back in April during the NBA Playoffs in his Phoenix Suns first-round exit. There was some concern about whether he'd be ready to play in the Olympic opener but he was not only in the lineup but extremely sharp after all the missed time.

"Maybe more than any player I've ever been around, when he comes back from a long absence, you don't notice it," Team USA head coach Steve Kerr said after the game. "I mean, he's so skilled, and he just looked like he was in mid-season form after not playing in a real basketball game for a couple of months. Pretty incredible."

Team USA Head Coach Steve Kerr revealed that they wanted to put Durant on a minutes restriction to slwoly ease in him

“We wanted to limit his minutes and just ease him back in and I eased him in,” Kerr said via The Athletic. “He didn’t ease himself back in. He was brilliant.”

It's a testament to how great of a player Durant is to light up the scoreboard in such little time. Giving him the green light with the second unit ccould mean trouble for the rest of the world on Team USA's path to another gold medal.

Durant proved that even off an injury that, he can still score with the best of them and will be huge for Team USA.