‘Much to improve’ before Olympics despite Serbia win — LeBron

LeBron James was pleased with the progress made by the USA in their 105-79 victory over Serbia in a friendly in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday but insists there is “so much room to improve” in the hunt for Olympic gold.

After a narrow win over Australia on Monday, that saw the United States nearly blow a 20-point lead towards the end of the clash, the stars and stripes were in commanding form against a Nikola Jokic-led Serbia.

Stephen Curry, who scored just three points in the USA’s 98-92 win over the Boomers, caught fire on Wednesday, opening the scoring with a signature three on the very first play and finishing the game with a team-high 24 points, shooting six for nine from beyond the arc.

“We drew it (the opening play) up for that particular reason, to get him going.

“He sees one go through the hoop, you see what it opens up for the rest of his game, for the rest of the game for all of us. He set the tone and we just tried to continue to keep finding him,” said James of Curry.

“We’ve still got so much room to improve but we want to continue to get better and not waste the opportunities. I felt like tonight we got better,” said James, who is gunning for his third Olympic gold medal this summer.

Bam Adebayo also had a successful evening, coming off the bench to tally up 17 points, eight rebounds and a pair of assists.

The Miami Heat center combined seamlessly on defence with Anthony Davis, who had six blocks, six rebounds and seven points.

“Bam and AD together are really something. Just the switching, but they can also protect the rim and be in a drop if we go to that coverage.

“They’ll combine with the ball pressure that Book was putting on their point guard, I thought that really set a tone for us,” US head coach Steve Kerr said.

Serbia, who lost to Australia on Tuesday, were once again without Atlanta Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who was on the bench but did not play.

Reigning NBA MVP Jokic had a double-double 16 points and 11 rebounds but it was not enough to halt the formidable Americans, whom they will face again in their Olympics opener in Lille, France on July 28.

The USA heads to London next, where they have two final exhibition games scheduled, against South Sudan on Saturday and reigning world champions Germany on Monday.

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