Why Jayson Tatum was a healthy scratch in Team USA’s win over Serbia

You might have heard this one before: A Boston Celtic has been overlooked by Team USA.

No, it’s not Jaylen Brown, who continues to express his frustration over being left off the Olympic roster and his ongoing feud with Nike.

This time, it was Jayson Tatum—the other half of the Boston Celtics’ dynamic duo—who was a healthy scratch as Team USA began its quest for a fifth consecutive Olympic Gold Medal with a 110-84 win over Serbia and three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

While teammate Jrue Holiday started alongside LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, and Devin Booker, finishing third in scoring with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, plus four rebounds, three assists, and two steals, and Derrick White contributed two points, an assist, and two steals with a +15 plus-minus rating, Tatum, a five-time All-Star, watched from the bench.

Tatum, who started three of Team USA’s five showcase games leading up to the Paris Games, and Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton were the only Team USA players to not log any minutes.

“It’s really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys,” head coach Steve Kerr said on the decision to bench Tatum via Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe . “With Kevin coming back, I just went to the combinations that I felt made the most sense. It seems crazy. I thought I was crazy when I looked at everything and determined these are the lineups I wanted to get to.”

“Jayson is first-team All-NBA three years in a row. He’s one of the best players in the world. I went with the combinations I felt would make sense, and I talked to him, and he was incredibly professional. He will make his mark.”

Tatum’s minutes were taken up by Kevin Durant, who made his first appearance of the summer after recovering from a calf injury. The Phoenix Suns star made his first eight shots and scored 21 points in the first half. Durant finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 from beyond the arc in just 16 minutes.

Tatum will look for an opportunity to contribute in the United States’ next game against South Sudan on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET.

In Team USA’s exhibition matchup against South Sudan, Tatum played 16 minutes off the bench, scoring nine points on 3-of-8 shooting, with one rebound and one block, as Team USA narrowly won 101-100.