Steph Curry, Bam Adebayo lead Team USA in lopsided defeat of Serbia in Olympic exhibition game

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — This is what Team USA can be, when everyone wearing the jersey is paying attention and the 3s start falling.

Stephen Curry and, yes, you’re reading this right, Bam Adebayo provided the aerial assault for the U.S. in an otherwise muscular, mighty display of dominance that became a 105-79 win over Serbia, whom it will face in the Olympic opener in just 11 days.

“Here comes the real Splash Brother,” Adebayo said to Curry, as the two switched places in front of reporters after combining for nine of Team USA’s 16 3s.

Curry scored 24 points, the most of any U.S. player so far this summer, including 18 in the first half with four 3s in 11 minutes. He came off a LeBron James screen on the first play of the game and knocked one down, setting the tone, and then in the second quarter produced one of those breathtaking four-point plays where he splashes one near the sideline as he draws contact.

Team USA coach Steve Kerr put his starters back in the game in the fourth quarter, up by more than 25, and Curry delivered two more 3s before calling it a night.

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Adebayo, the Americans’ backup power forward who made 15 3s on the season in Miami, connected on three bombs Wednesday for 17 points.

“Warriors fans are hating me tonight like they hate me every time I take Steph out,” Kerr said. “We’re still in the process of getting ready, getting guys over the hump conditioning wise. But again, the whole focus for this team is defense, defense, defense. So as long as we are putting pressure on the ball and making things difficult for our opponent, it’s going to be a different guy every night scoring. These guys are all really talented.

“It was Steph tonight, next game it’ll be somebody else. And it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.”

James bullied his way to 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Anthony Edwards returned to the bench — and Jrue Holiday was back with the starters — but it doesn’t seem to matter what Edwards’ role is. He’ll be a bucket. Put him down for 16 more points against the Serbians and the team lead in points through three Olympic exhibition games.

The examples of potential this loaded U.S. team has are everywhere. Here’s another one: Jayson Tatum, a three-time first-team All-NBA performer, was an afterthought in the starting five and scoreless at halftime. He finished with four points on five shots, and it’s like, no big deal. The Americans have him covered.

Defensively the U.S. blocked six shots, all by Anthony Davis, and held superstar Nikola Jokić to 6-of-19 shooting.

“Not at all,” Adebayo said, when asked if what the Americans did Wednesday was an example of this team’s potential. If he’s right, if they overwhelm opponents even more so than they swarmed Serbia, well it’s simply not good news for the other 11 Olympic teams.

“We still have so much room to improve, but we want to continue to get better and not waste opportunities,” James said.

This was a 40-40 game with 4:42 left in the second quarter. Then Curry cashed in on the aforementioned 3-pointer and-1, Edwards followed with a 3 and by halftime it was 59-45. The Americans’ run between the second and third quarters was 31-5, and unlike their narrow, sloppy win over the Australians on Monday at Etihad Arena, there was no lapse in concentration after a big lead.

If anything, the U.S. started slowly Wednesday, shaking off the sun rust from an off day in Dubai, perhaps. The Americans had just two assists on their first nine field goals and at one point in the second quarter had tallied six turnovers for three points. Twenty-three of Serbia’s points came from U.S. turnovers.

As for Serbia’s top player, Jokić, he finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds despite the poor shooting. What was most impressive about the two-time MVP’s performance against the U.S. was the minutes load. Jokić played the first 29 game minutes (quarters are 10 minutes long in FIBA play) after logging 28 minutes Tuesday against Australia. Not only did he play both ends of a meaningless back to back, but he posted double doubles in both games for Serbia (he had 14 points and 14 rebounds against the Aussies).

Jokić didn’t play the fourth quarter. The Serbians’ other major NBA player, Bogdan Bogdanović, didn’t play against the U.S. or Australia in Abu Dhabi.

This may have been the Americans’ most lopsided win, and it’s true the Serbians don’t have nearly as many NBA players as Canada or Australia, but don’t dismiss Jokić’s team. Serbia finished second at the FIBA World Cup last summer and he didn’t even play.

“I think as soon as Paris comes, we’ll be better,” said Filip Petrušev, a Serbian forward who scored 11 points. “We’ll be ready and if we’re ready to play with ’em physically, I think the skill level is not that much (different).”

Whoa, wait a minute? Team Serbia’s skills match this American Dream Team Lite’s skills?

“I meant more like as we’re sharing the ball, reading the game, basketball IQ, I think in that sense we can compete with them,” Petrušev said. “When it comes to skill level individually, maybe not all of us, but we got the best player in the world (Jokić), and also some other guys show that they can compete and make advantages against these guys.”

It was after the Australia game when Kerr refused to commit to Joel Embiid as a starter. Kerr seemed to change that after the Serbia game, confirming he liked Embiid starting with James and Curry, and that the Americans were still trying to identify who the other starters might be.

On Wednesday, Embiid was matched largely against Jokić, with whom he engages in epic battles during the NBA season, and shot just 2 of 8 for eight points and eight rebounds.

“I’m having the time of my life,” Embiid said. “I don’t have to do anything (because he is playing with stars), so I’m happy just chilling, just hanging out and doing the little things.”

Derrick White, who is replacing Kawhi Leonard on the roster, saw his first action of the summer. He scored one point, adding four rebounds in nine minutes.

The U.S.’s next exhibition game is Saturday against South Sudan in London, another of the teams the Americans will face in Olympic pool play.

(Photo: Christopher Pike / Getty Images)