Watch: LeBron James starts strong in gold-medal game

France has Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama, but the first big block in the gold-medal game came from LeBron James.

It didn’t take long for the 39-year-old to put his stamp on the France-USA matchup Saturday in Paris. He had a block, a steal, two rebounds and two assists in the first quarter, including a beautiful behind-the-back dime to Devin Booker.

While James was the main story as Team USA finished the quarter with a 20-16 lead, head coach Steve Kerr made some notable lineup changes. He inserted Kevin Durant, the greatest American scorer in Olympic history, into the starting lineup. Kerr also brought Jayson Tatum out of mothballs as a first-quarter sub, and he responded with a dunk — and an ugly missed three.

Victor Wembanyama kept France in it with seven points and an assist, showing that the underdog French team has a near-impossible matchup in the 7-foot-4 center. At the same time, France has no matchup for “Roi James” either.