RIO DE JANEIRO (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Kevin Durant admits the United States are being challenged a lot more this summer than in his previous stints with the national team.

Durant was the Most Valuable Player of the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup when the Americans won the title and a gold medal winner two years later at the London Games.

The USA's 100-97 victory over France on Sunday was the third time in a row that the United States could not pull away for a big win. They had a 98-88 victory over Australia and then scraped a 94-91 triumph over Serbia before taking on the French.

Durant spoke after Sunday's victory.

What about these close games? USA are accustomed to winning by big margins.
Durant: We're going to have to grind it out. Every team is going to come at us, so at the end of the day, we're just trying to win. We've got leads, but we're playing in spurts. We've got to put a whole game together.

It's a surprise for a lot of the fans watching these games.
Durant: Everyone wants us to win by a lot of points, but that's not going to happen this time, so we've got to be prepared for a grind-out game and I think we showed the last few games we can grind it out.

Durant is playing at his second Olympics

Do you think the team played well today?
Durant: We played a little better on the offensive end, but for the most part, we've still got to do a better job on covering each other on the defensive end.

How do you view the rest of this Olympics for the team?
Durant: It's game sevens from now on.

FIBA