Pressure is something USA’s basketball stars apply to others – they’re having fun

Kevin Durant, LeBron James and co dismantle their world No 4-ranked Serbian opponents in a riotous Paris Olympics pantomime

Perhaps the pivotal moment in this game – tonally, if not competitively – came right at the end of the third quarter. Anthony Edwards sends Nikola Jovic to the shoe shop with an outrageous feint and slip, drains a simple two, and as he peels away he sees pretty much the entire bench doing impressions of him, spinning and reeling, consumed in fits of laughter. That, in hindsight, was probably the point at which a potentially tricky Olympic basketball opener against the world’s No 4 side dissolved fully into riotous, uproarious pantomime.

So no, it’s fair to say Team USA did not get the memo. They are not burdened by your expectations. They are not keeping themselves up at night worrying about how they measure up against 1992. They have not been reading your angsty tweets (with the exception of KD, who almost certainly has). The result: three quarters of pure business, one quarter of pure pleasure, a potential medal rival not simply dispatched but shoved disdainfully aside, a game that was basically conceived at its outset as a series of memes.