Two Celtics played key roles in Team USA’s blowout win over Serbia on Sunday. Jayson Tatum was not one of them.

In a stunning decision by head coach Steve Kerr, Tatum did not see the floor in the United States’ first game of the 2024 Summer Olympics, watching from the bench as his national team compatriots routed Nikola Jokic and Co. 110-84 in Lille, France.

Tatum and Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton were the only U.S. players who did not appear in the game. Tatum told The Boston Globe that his DNP was not injury- or illness-related.

Kerr said the call to sit Tatum — who, in the lead-up to the Olympics, helped lead Boston to an NBA title and then signed the richest contract in league history — was related to Kevin Durant’s return from injury.

Durant, who did not play in Team USA’s five warmup games, was excellent Sunday, scoring 23 points off the bench on 8-of-9 shooting, including 5-of-5 from 3-point range. He and LeBron James went a combined 17-for-22 from the field (77.3%) to power the Americans back from an early 10-2 deficit.

“It’s really hard in a 40-minute game to play more than 10 guys,” Kerr told reporters in Paris. “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.”

Kerr said those combinations could change in future games. Team USA — the heavy favorite to win a fifth straight Olympic gold — plays South Sudan on Wednesday and Puerto Rico next Saturday before the knockout round begins.

“(Tatum will) make his mark,” Kerr told reporters. “Our guys know the key to this whole thing is to put all the NBA stuff in the rear-view mirror and just win six games. Jayson is the ultimate pro and champion and he handled it well, and he’s going to be ready for the next game.”

While Tatum was relegated to spectator status, Celtics teammates Jrue Holiday and Derrick White both impressed for the red, white and blue.

Holiday started and played 24 minutes, scoring 15 points on efficient 6-of-8 shooting (3-for-5 from three) to go along with four rebounds, three assists and two steals. White was one of Kerr’s first subs, checking in midway through the first quarter, and though his stat line was modest (two points, one rebound, one assist), he recorded two steals and a block and was a plus-15 in his 16 minutes of action.

White — the only Team USA player without an All-Star selection on his resume — was a late addition to the squad, replacing the injured Kawhi Leonard less than three weeks before the Games. These are the 30-year-old’s first Olympics and the second for Tatum and Holiday, who were part of the gold medal-winning team in Tokyo.