Kevin Durant eclipses 4x Olympic champion to mark another milestone in USA’s win against Puerto Rico
Prior to Kevin Durant and Team USA's clash with Puerto Rico on Saturday, the Future Hall of Famer needed just six points to pass Lisa Leslie as the United States' all-time leading Olympic scorer. Throughout her career, Leslie competed in the Olympics four times for Team USA, scoring a total of 488 points while securing four gold medals.
In Saturday's game, Durant scored 11 points, surpassing Leslie to become Team USA's all-time leading scorer in the Olympics. After getting off to a slow start in the first, Durant caught fire in the second, helping fuel a Team USA run that saw the team head into the half with a big lead.
In the second half, it was more of the same for Kevin Durant and Team USA. The team built on its lead, with Durant scoring efficient buckets to cement his place as Team USA's all-time leading scorer and rebounder.
While this is likely to be Durant's final Olympic run with Team USA given that he would be closing in on 40 years of age at the time of the next Olympics, he will have a chance to extend his own record throughout the rest of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
With their win on Saturday, the team will now shift its focus to the playoff rounds, which begin on Aug. 6 with four quarterfinal games. From there, teams who advance will compete in two semifinal games on Aug. 8 before the bronze and gold medal games on Aug. 10.
Looking at Kevin Durant's Olympic career with Team USA
This year, Kevin Durant is seeking his fourth Olympic gold medal with Team USA after previously winning gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Back in 2012, when Durant competed in his first Olympics with Team USA, the young star led Team USA in scoring with 19.5 points per game as the group went 5-0 through the Group Phase. They rattled off three more wins to secure Gold, with Kevin Durant leading all scorers with 30 points in the gold medal game.
Four years later, the same summer that Durant controversially parted ways with the OKC Thunder, he returned to Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Much like he did in 2012, Durant led the team in scoring with 19.4ppg, scoring another 30 points in Team USA's gold medal game against Serbia.
At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Team USA went 2-1 in the Group Phase, marking their first loss since the 2004 Olympics, where Team USA failed to secure gold for the first time since 1988. Despite that, The team was able to defeat Spain, Australia, and France to secure gold.
Durant wound up not only leading the team in scoring throughout the Olympics, but also in each of the three knockout games, with 29 points against Spain in the quarterfinals, 23 points against Australia in the semifinals, and 29 points against France in the gold medal game.