Kevin Durant came off the bench in all three of the United States' games during group play at the 2024 Olympics in Lille, and he'll continue to do so in the knockout round in Paris. During a conference call on Sunday, Team USA coach Steve Kerr told reporters that the team has "found a good grove" with Durant in the second unit, so he'll stick with it against Brazil in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Durant missed all five of the United States' exhibition games leading up to the Olympics because of a hamstring injury. Durant played 17 near-perfect minutes off the bench in the opener against Serbia last Sunday, 22 minutes against South Sudan on Wednesday and 19 minutes against Puerto Rico on Saturday.
"I think if Kevin had been here from Day 1, chances are he would be starting," Kerr told reporters. "That was the plan coming in, but, given that he missed all of our friendlies and came in late, we had kind of established a lineup that we liked. And when we brought him back, he was only going to play a certain amount of minutes against Serbia, and he played so well and he fit so well with that group."
Immediately, the unit of Durant, Derrick White, Anthony Edwards, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis was "devastating," Kerr said, so "there's no plans on changing that. But of course, as the games get more difficult, my guess is Kevin will be playing more and more minutes. So he'll keep coming off the bench for now, but we'll lean on him more and more as we go."
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Source: CBS Sports 2024 Olympics Men's Basketball: Kevin Durant will continue to come off the bench for Team USA knockout stage by James Herbert, Accessed 8/04/2024