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‘He’ll make his mark.’ Steve Kerr explains why he didn’t let Jayson Tatum play in Team USA’s Olympic victory over Serbia

‘He’ll make his mark.’ Steve Kerr explains why he didn’t let Jayson Tatum play in Team USA’s Olympic victory over Serbia

LILLE, France — The United States men’s basketball team’s 110-84 victory over Serbia to open the Olympic group stage on Sunday went largely as expected. But there was one surprising absence.

Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum, who last month signed a five-year contract extension with the world champion and now the richest in NBA history, did not appear in the game. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, who was used somewhat sparingly during the five-game exhibition series and is generally considered a class below Tatum, was the only other player not to appear in the game.

Afterward, U.S. coach Steve Kerr said Tatum’s absence was largely due to the return of forward Kevin Durant, who scored 23 points on 8 of 9 shooting in just 17 minutes after being sidelined for nearly a month with a calf injury.

“It’s really hard to play more than 10 players in a 40-minute game,” Kerr said. “With Kevin coming back, I just went with the combinations that made the most sense to me. It seems crazy. I thought I was crazy when I looked at everything and decided that these were the lineups I wanted to go with.

“Jayson has been first-team All-NBA three years in a row. He’s one of the best players in the world. I went with the combinations that made sense to me, and I talked to him, and he was incredibly professional.”

Kerr stressed that he does not expect these rotations to remain unchanged throughout the Olympics.

“(Tatum will) make his mark,” he said. “Our guys know the key to this whole thing is to get all the NBA stuff done and just win six games. Jayson is the ultimate pro and champion and he’s handled it well, and he’ll be ready for the next game.”

Tatum did not participate in mixed-zone interviews after the game, saying only that he was in good health. Celtics guard Derrick White, who played 15 minutes, 40 seconds in Sunday’s win, said he spoke with Tatum after the game.

“He’s good,” White said. “He’s in good spirits. He’s obviously a great player and we’ve got a lot of great guys on the team, so he’ll be fine.”


Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.