Why didn’t Steve Kerr play Jayson Tatum against Serbia in first Olympic game
Team USA cruised past Serbia in their opening match of the Paris Olympics, but Steve Kerr still had questions to answer after not playing Jayston Tatum.
Team USA’s men’s basketball tipped off their Olympic campaign on Sunday against Serbia with a blowout win but the headline coming out of the American’s first game had nothing to do with what happened on the floor. Instead, questions revolved around Jayson Tatum who didn’t pay a single minute in the 110-84 win.
Tatum sacrificed in opener
Tatum is fresh off the first championship of his career after a season that saw him named to the All-NBA first-team. The Boston Celtic is considered one of the top players in the game, but that wasn’t enough to get him on the floor in Team USA’s first match of the Paris games.
Minutes will be scarce for almost everyone on this stacked team full of No. 1 scoring options on their respective NBA squads. There are a lot of talented players on the roster, and eight fewer minutes in international basketball. Tatum got a couple of starts in the exhibition tour leading up to the Olympics, but with Kevin Durant being incorporated after injury minutes are even harder to come by.
Durant returned from his calf strain and had a perfect first half, going 8/8 from the field and scoring 21 points. LeBron James flirted with a triple double in a 21 point performance as Team USA pulled away from the Serbians in the second half.
Kerr assures Tatum will play next game
Head coach Steve Kerr said he “feels like an idiot” for not playing the reigning NBA champion, but the decision was made before the game even started. It was less about Durant returning and more about the match ups against a big, physical Serbia team. After meeting with his assistants, Kerr decided on going with three centers against Nikola Jokic and opting with Derrick White off the bench to try to limit their stronger guards on the perimeter.
“The hardest part of this job is you’re sitting at least a couple of guys who are world-class, some of the very best players on Earth,” said Kerr to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “On one hand, it makes no sense at all. On the other, I’m asking these guys to just commit to winning one game and then move on to the next one. I have to do the same thing. And so I felt like last night those were the combinations that made the most sense.”
The 26-point win over the Serbians might have calmed some nerves after a USA Basketball Showcase that had it’s moments of difficulty. Kerr’s side survived scares against South Sudan and Germany in the final games of their exhibition tour, and now the American’s will get a chance to avenge the scare against South Sudan on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Coach Kerr did confirm that Tatum would play in the game on Wednesday.