Kevin Durant likely to play for US in its Olympic opener against Serbia

There is hope that Kevin Durant will play for the US in its Olympic opener against Serbia on Sunday, which means the men's national team may have 12 players available for the first time this summer. That is unless something else happens.

The Americans open their path toward what they hope is a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal when they take on three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and World Cup finalist Serbia in the opener for both teams at the Paris Games.

Durant missed all five exhibition games the US played coming into Paris because of a calf strain, and coach Steve Kerr stopped short of definitively saying Saturday that he is in the line-up for the opener.

Hopefully, Kerr said. Durant was on the floor for practice, while presumed starting centre Joel Embiid was not because of illness.

Kerr said he didn't expect Embiid to miss Sunday's game. I'm confident we'll have everybody ready tomorrow, Kerr said.

There have been signs in recent days that USA Basketball expects Durant a ..