U.S. Men Rout France 98-71

The U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team got off to a good start on Sunday in their first game of tournament play rolling over France 98-71. Led by Kevin Durant’s 22 points and 9 rebounds the U.S. was never in serious trouble after being up only one at end of the first quarter.

Kobe Bryant added 10 in only 12 minutes of action and Lebron James added 9 points and 8 assists in his 25 minutes. Tyson Chandler looked great in his 11 minutes scoring 8 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. Kevin Love chipped in with 14 points off the bench as did Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook each with 9 off the bench.

France is not the worst team in the tournament but are not necessarily considered contenders for medals. They have some NBA names with Tony Parker (10 points) leading the way but Ronny Turiaf (7 points, 9 rebounds), Nicolas Batum (7 points), Boris Diaw (9 points, 6 rebounds) and Kevin Seraphin (3 points) just didn’t  stand a chance. Ali Traore who plays professionally in Russia was France’s leading scorer with 12 points off the bench.

France is not one of the few teams that are considered a threat to beat the U.S but at times the U.S. did look sloppy and racked up 14 turnovers throughout the game. Overall the U.S. looked fine and blew the game open in the second half. Up 17 at the start of the fourth quarter the first overall pick in June's  NBA Draft Anthony Davis even saw some action off the bench. In his 8 minutes of play Davis scored three points and grabbed three rebounds.

The U.S. Men’s basketball team will play again on Tuesday against Tunisia who was beaten by Nigeria 60-56 on Saturday.