London, England – Kevin Durant had 22 points and nine rebounds, as the United States opened its quest for another Olympic gold medal in men's basketball with a 98-71 victory over France.
The Americans, who beat Spain four years ago in Beijing to take home the gold medal, got 14 points from Kevin Love. Kobe Bryant tallied 10 points.
Team USA improved to 5-0 all-time against France in Olympic competition.
Ali Traore and Tony Parker ended with 12 and 10 points, respectively, for France, which is making its first Olympic appearance since 2000 when they lost to the USA in the gold medal game.
"We're pleased. We played a very good game against an outstanding team," USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "France is so well-coached and in (Tony) Parker, they have as good of a guard as there is in the tournament. I thought we did a good job defensively. We share the ball. We assisted on 27 of our 31 buckets and we rebounded the ball very well. Overall, it was a good first step or us, beating an outstanding French team."
The USA, gold medalists in 13 of the 16 Olympics in which it has played, took control of the game in the second quarter. Holding a 22-21 lead after 10 minutes, the Americans scored the first 11 points of the second stanza. LeBron James, Bryant and Chris Paul made three-pointers during the burst to make it a 33-21 game with 7:41 left.
France stayed within striking distance and cut the gap to 35-28 on a pair of free throws from Florent Pietrus with less than five minutes remaining.
But Team USA responded with eight straight points and never looked back. Love tallied five points during the spurt, including a three-pointer to make it 43-28. The Americans led 52-36 at the break.
The U.S. outscored France by a 26-15 margin in the third period and cruised to victory.
"We played very well," Bryant said. "In the first quarter we gave up way too many free throws. It made the game a little choppy. It was tough for us to generate some momentum. But then after that we were able to get into a good flow."
The Americans improved to 16-1 all-time in Olympic openers. They will take on Tunisia on Tuesday.
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